It’s a hot market.
Remember when the National Collegiate Athletic Association was so afraid of having major events in states that featured sports gambling, more specifically Nevada? A funny thing happened on the way to Las Vegas, Nevada. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that states could have sports gambling in a May 2018 decision and that got the NCAA to thinking. Maybe it is time to relax the rule and look into Nevada and the glitz of Las Vegas. After all there is money to be made and why shut off a place that has suddenly become white hot in the sports world. The National Hockey League’s Vegas Golden Knights franchise has been embraced by the community. The National Football League, which fought Delaware and New Jersey in court to prevent sportsbooks in those states, is opening shop in Las Vegas in 2020 when Mark Davis moves his Raiders business from Oakland to the city. The NFL which would not allow Las Vegas tourism ads in 2003 during the Super Bowl telecast because of sportsbooks will kick off Davis’s Las Vegas residency by holding the 2020 NFL Draft in town.
The NCAA is also coming to town. The Pac 12 will be playing its conference championship game in Davis’s new football facility in 2020 and 2021. The Pac 12, it should be noted, has played its conference basketball championship tournament in Las Vegas since 2013. The NCAA has always worried about gambling and its impact on student-athletes but when money is on the table, the NCAA leaves its morality behind and wants the cash. It is just a matter of time until the NCAA’s college football playoff games are held in Las Vegas. It is unlikely the men’s college basketball title game will be held in Las Vegas as Davis’s new playpen does not have a roof. What happens in Vegas sports wise doesn’t stay in Vegas.
