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What do you think of when the phrase "Las Vegas" is brought up?

Gambling, loosing,
winning, clubs, bars? The list could go on but one thing unable to be listed is a professional
sports team and complex. Actually, that statement is false this year the NHL has announced the
Las Vegas Knights as the newest edition of the National Hockey League. Some may ask what
this is going to do for the NHL and if it was worth it but as easy as that question is, the answer is
easier. The edition of the new sports complex would open up the world of profit for the NHL but
not only the NHL would benefit, those residents of Las Vegas to even the state of Nevada. The
creation of this team and the sport complex will cause a chain reaction that will not just benefit
the direct people involved but just the population in general.
When Las Vegas is brought up the only thing that comes to mind is the chance of losing
money and a great place that everyone wants to go vacation to lose money. But what do the
residents feel about this? With the diversification and hot spot of Boston Massachusetts, I was
able to find and ask a few questions from residence of Nevada about the whole casino look of
Las Vegas. Overall, most of the interviewees all had a common thought which was that they
opened up job opportunities and it gives the state of Nevada something to be proud about. The
graph below shows the economic status of the major city in Nevada, Las Vegas.

ECONOMY Las Vegas, Nevada United States


Unemployment Rate 7.20% 5.20%
Recent Job Growth 3.53% 1.59%
Future Job Growth 39.87% 37.98%
Sales Taxes 8.15% 6.00%
Income Taxes 0.00% 4.60%
Income per Cap. $25,555 $28,555
Household Income $50,903 $53,482
Family Median Income $59,500 $65,443

As the chart shows, the current job growth is a very small number at 3.53 percent but this
number is bound to change, in a good way. Statistics show that the future job growth rate is
going to be as high as 39.87 percent. But what could possibly make this number jump that high.
Its an easy answer after the NHL has announced the creation of the new sports complex and the
newest team the Las Vegas Knights.
With this team brought in to the National Hockey League they were required to create a
new stadium which you cannot have a new stadium without people running it. Where will these
people come from? The state! "[The] recently built Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis
Colts, employed 2800 back in 2008." (https://www.quora.com). Obviously the creation of this
new stadium for the Indianapolis Colts created so many jobs for the people in Indianapolis. It
would be surprising if the same thing cannot happen in one of the biggest cities in the nation.
Keep in mind, "The home of Las Vegas naturally has an outsize gaming sector. About 183,000
Nevadans are employed by Casino hotels, with another 10,000 employed by non-hotel casinos
and other gambling establishments." (http://www.businessinsider.com). With the creation of this
new stadium these Casino hotels are going to need more employees to cover for those who are
trying to celebrate in the city after a game night victory for this new NHL team. And who knows
with this team other investors may use this to invest in to hotels and casinos around that area,
again opening up jobs for the citizens of that area. If the cards are played correctly which I am
sure the staff will, they could also open up the arena to lets say professional wrestling which
would be a huge as it is ranked number eight in the top ten most popular sports. This would
benefit for the owners of the stadium and the market of professional wrestling. Having this huge
stadium in Las Vegas and having these events being held there will surely have a huge positive
impact on the economic side for the city, state, NHL, and even professional wrestling.
Furthermore, to add on putting more professional sports teams in this stadium, both teams
from the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association are commonly known
to share a stadium for example the Boston Bruins and the Boston Celtics share the TD Garden to
try to get maximum profit by given more sporting events which increases revenue from ticket
sales to even food sales. Online sources have mentioned that the Las Vegas Knights are in the
future are willing to add the addition of a professional basketball team to the stadium. This could
go in two paths. The first one would be the completely new creation of an NBA team and the
second would be having a team move to Las Vegas. Both of which would do the same thing as
this new NHL team, increase revenue for the stadium, owners, city, state, and even both leagues
would benefit. But the job opportunities that would open up for the state would be countless and
that job growth rate of 3.53 percent will definitely increase past the projected 39.87 percent job
increase.
To branch off opening up jobs, at the stadium, with the creation of a new NHL team there
needs to be a minor team created for this professional team. With the creation of this minor team,
there would need to be another stadium created for them which would do the same thing as the
Las Vegas Knights stadium. Open up the job market for where ever this is going to be placed to
even opening up merchandise sales for these smaller communities where this arena would be
placed. This addition is not just going to benefit economically for these cities but also the
National Hockey League in general.
As seen in the graph below the NHL is
in the color purple:

The National Hockey League dropped


in revenue because of the well-known
NHL lookout but as you can see its
starting to grow again. With the
addition of the Las Vegas Knights this
number will increase and the NHL will
be on the top of the annual revenue.
An easy way to see how they are
already impacting profit is that the
team has already sold 16,000 season
tickets for a stadium that can only hold 20,000 citizens. The average ticket price for a seat in the
stadium is around 75 dollars which is in the middle of the pricing range. With 16,000 season
tickets already sold multiplied by the average cost would give the stadium a profit of 1,200,000
dollars in less than a few months of opening up the ticket sales. The team has yet to open up the
sales of their merchandise but when that happens you will see the new logo everywhere. The
marketing department of the professional team has come up with a slick easy to notice logo that
has everyone on their toes and cannot wait until the market is open. The location of the arena is
in the perfect spot, right in the middle of "the sin city" of Las Vegas. People that go there to
gamble are going to be able to gamble on the game and if they win big, they'd spend all their
money on going out and even pick up a few logo merchandise to show their support for the team
that just won them big.
Looking past the NHL, local city, and even state benefits there are other organizations
that will benefit from this team. Having a professional sports complex and team will attract those
who dont just want to gamble but to watch a great sporting event. Las Vegas gets people flying
there from all over the world to just gamble but not many for sports. With ice hockey being
ranked the fourth most popular sport in America and "hockey is most popular in areas of North
America (particularly Canada and northern parts of the United States) and Europe."
(http://sporteology.com) people are going to want to fly from the Northern Areas to go watch the
games down south which will increase the profit for those airlines that people take. This number
will not be as dramatic as the job percentage but it will slowly go up and slowly add up to
helping these airlines to keep their airplanes the top of the line and keep them safe for citizens.
Also with hockey not being as popular in the southern areas, this is going to give the league to
expand the knowledge of hockey and expand to the south. The team has done an extremely great
job strategically placing this arena in Las Vegas for all these economically beneficial facts but
looking past the economic gains for the state and leagues, this will open up the world of hockey
culturally for the southern areas where hockey is not as popular. If the NHL expands culturally
down south and if this team keeps becoming more and more popular at the rate more and more
people are going to be demanding more of this sport which ultimately open up the market for
more merchandise sales. Also when hockey becomes more popular down south more and more
children will want to go watch the Las Vegas Knights and would want to start the sport. This will
open up sales for those who make hockey equipment.
This is all on big snowball that just keeps building and building. The National Hockey
League announces the creation of a new professional team and place it in one of the most
strategically placed areas of Las Vegas. This starts off with benefitting the organization,
residence, and state but what people do not realize that this will open up a whole new world of
the culturally expansion for Ice Hockey which would in all open up the market of hockey. This
could hugely impact the
Nation by having people
spend money to put more
in to the economy. Ice
Hockey is an expensive
sport everyone knows that,
to purchase just the
equipment for players is
roughly just over one
thousand dollars and for a
goalie its 3,500 dollars.
That is not including the
ice time that placers need
to practice. This chart is
explaining where the United States is going. With the expansion of this organization and the
effects of it, the so called poor will have job opportunities and with hockey becoming more
popular the rich are going to get in to the sport causing them to spend their money which slowly
could change the Economics of the United States. The National Hockey League deciding to
expand is a snowball effect the creation of this team is going to economically benefit so many
organizations besides just the National Hockey League. This is going to spark other wealthier
people in this world to invest in hockey thus opening job opportunities, and revenue for not just a
few people but for a large span of citizens.
Work Cited

Clinton, Jared. "Las Vegas Team Sells out of Season Tickets for 2017-18 | The
Hockey News." The Hockey News. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2016.

"Full Season Tickets." Official Site of the National Hockey League. N.p., n.d.
Web. 13 Dec. 2016.

"How Many People Are Employed at the Stadium for a Pro Football Game?"
How Many People Are Employed at the Stadium for a Pro Football Game? -
Quora. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2016.

Https://www.facebook.com/khabir2014. "Top 10 Most Popular Sports in America


Sporteology." Sporteology. N.p., 08 Sept. 2016. Web. 13 Dec. 2016.

Kiersz, Andy. "RANKED: The Economies of All 50 US States and DC from Worst
to Best." Business Insider. Business Insider, 03 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2016.

"Las_Vegas, Nevada Economy." Las_Vegas, Nevada Economy. N.p., n.d. Web.


13 Dec. 2016.
"NHL Tickets - Ticket Monster." Ticket Monster. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2016.

"NHLNumbers.com." Why the NHL Lockout Won't Cancel the 2012-2013


Season | NHLNumbers.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2016.

Elkins, Kathleen. "80% of Americans Own an Unbelievably Small Portion of the


Country's Wealth." Business Insider. Business Insider, 15 June 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2016.

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