Kings Of Vegas

Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman Gambling on the Pros

November 30th, 2005

From the USA Today

LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman says he’ll wager on anything and everything: football games, the passage of city ordinances, even a cockroach race. Now, Goodman is making the biggest bet of his career — that he can successfully lure a pro sports team such as Major League Baseball’s Florida Marlins to Sin City.

If the Dallas Cowboys are “America’s team,” a Las Vegas franchise would be the “world’s team,” says Goodman, a former criminal defense attorney for mobsters such as Meyer Lansky. If Goodman were a betting man, and he is, he’s betting he’ll throw out the first pitch for a Las Vegas baseball team by 2008. The team should be called, what else, “The Oscars,” suggests Goodman.

“To be a great American city, you have to have sports,” says Goodman, who played himself as a mob lawyer in the movie Casino.

Can you say “Viva Las Vegas”? With a population approaching 2 million people, Las Vegas is one of America’s fastest-growing metropolitan areas. The town already has boxing, pro wrestling, Ultimate Fighting, NASCAR, the Arena Football League’s Las Vegas Gladiators and the 51s, the Class AAA affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now it wants one of the Big Four pro sports: MLB, the NBA, the NFL or the NHL.

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