And haven't really seen many people talk about it much.... I've talked with a few people in person that feel similarly or at least understand what I'm thinking.
There's a lot of "if's" in here, but I feel with the way things are progressing, many of those "if's" will hold true.
I don't have anything against professional sports. I've lost a ton of interest over the years because the whole free agency aspect kind of ruined it for me. I'm one that holds loyalty near and dear and owners and players just don't have it anymore. It became big business, the most dollars have the huge advantage, so it becomes less about a level playing field and winning based on building. Sports are filled with rental players and it doesn't appeal to me like it used to. I enjoyed following a career in college/minors through retirement following a natural path. Those days are long gone and have been for decades. If I flash back 30-35 years, I was diehard about pro sports and didn't even bother with college sports. It's been a 180 degree flip for both for me.
Yeah, Vegas is ready for major sports and they have been for awhile. NHL is happening and football will be soon to follow. Who knows if that'll eventually lead to baseball and basketball, but you gotta think at some point it's going to happen. It's hard to be a major city and not have major league sports. They pretty much go hand in hand. And it IS time for Vegas.
For me, I don't personally like it. I understand the whole "progress" thing, but one person's progress can be another one's regression when you think about it. What I'm saying is everything I grew up in, everything I loved about Vegas.... it's gone. For me, Las Vegas was far better when it was a town instead of a city. The city lost a certain charm and became corporate America. There were far fewer "problems" when Vegas was under 500,000 people. With big cities come big problems and we are seeing it all across the Valley.
What I'm ultimately getting at is there is a very strong possibility that UNLV becomes a footnote. As it stands with sports, UNLV was the only game in town. Didn't matter whether they were in the Final Four, making a bowl game or missing the post season or finishing below .500. It's all we had. Yeah, UNLV didn't live up to their end of the deal for much of the time, but they were still ours.
Say we end up with 2-4 major league teams.... to think that the competition for the entertainment dollar can't impact UNLV is shortsighted. To think that the media coverage (even though print is virtually dead) can't dilute UNLV into insignificance is shortsighted. To think that conversations at the corner neighborhood bar or grocery store are going to revolve around UNLV is shortsighted.... now granted, UNLV hasn't been important enough even locally to fully take advantage of those things.... but it was the only game in town, there hasn't been competition for it.
Oh, I agree that the Raiders and a stadium can be huge for the football program. It CAN be a game changer. But it's no guarantee, either. For it to be a game changer, it has to help UNLV football to get into P5 - a stadium is not the sole reasoning in getting into P5. It has to help UNLV WIN. Yeah, you'd think that a mega-stadium and the association with NFL is going to help with recruiting. And we have a staff that goes hard and has vision. But UNLV has NEVER won. We are talking about one of the worst D1 programs overall in the last 40 years. One of the very WORST. And now we are expecting a stadium and a good coaching staff to turn around 40 years of losing into being a consistent (not even high level) winner. Is it possible? Of course it is.
But even if we get a stadium and the football team starts putting up successive above 500 seasons, that's not an automatic guarantee to P5. Nothing guarantees it. The amount of politics and money and everything else that is required to line up properly is unnerving. Again, it could happen. But what happens if that P5 invite never comes?
Basketball isn't even at a crossroads, it's at ground level and fighting to get some respectability back. And it won't happen overnight. And this is UNLV's flagship program.
I certainly understand the excitement for becoming major league... that's alot of money, city wide recognition, new teams to back so a better chance at the "ultimate" celebrations... more jobs, etc. I get all that.
I'm just saying, UNLV can become completely irrelevant or 5th rate if/when these major league actions occur. A large part of the blame has to lie at UNLV itself, they've had PLENTY of time to align themselves with bigger things but the money and time has been squandered. Hopefully they make the most of whatever opportunity is left.
I look at other big cities with pro sports and see that in large part, the colleges take a back seat. There are exceptions.... Nova just won the big one in a 100% sports city, UCLA has done it in the past, USC, etc. And there are others. But when you look at the most successful programs, in general, there is a concentrated community effort in helping to elevate the programs. Usually they are smaller towns or just college towns. What's the best college sports program in Chicago, New York, etc? UNLV was prime to be one of those smaller towns that could benefit from the concentrated community effort that I'm talking about. Oh, and it was for about 20 years. But it's been anything but a concentrated effort for the past 20 or so years.
If Vegas weren't to get pro sports, there's absolutely no guarantee that the programs would thrive. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me to see the status quo of just fledgling along without a chance at a P5 invite. So I'm not saying pro sports would kill UNLV. I'm just saying that it could be the a final nail in coffin when it comes to significance in the city.
There's a lot of "if's" in here, but I feel with the way things are progressing, many of those "if's" will hold true.
I don't have anything against professional sports. I've lost a ton of interest over the years because the whole free agency aspect kind of ruined it for me. I'm one that holds loyalty near and dear and owners and players just don't have it anymore. It became big business, the most dollars have the huge advantage, so it becomes less about a level playing field and winning based on building. Sports are filled with rental players and it doesn't appeal to me like it used to. I enjoyed following a career in college/minors through retirement following a natural path. Those days are long gone and have been for decades. If I flash back 30-35 years, I was diehard about pro sports and didn't even bother with college sports. It's been a 180 degree flip for both for me.
Yeah, Vegas is ready for major sports and they have been for awhile. NHL is happening and football will be soon to follow. Who knows if that'll eventually lead to baseball and basketball, but you gotta think at some point it's going to happen. It's hard to be a major city and not have major league sports. They pretty much go hand in hand. And it IS time for Vegas.
For me, I don't personally like it. I understand the whole "progress" thing, but one person's progress can be another one's regression when you think about it. What I'm saying is everything I grew up in, everything I loved about Vegas.... it's gone. For me, Las Vegas was far better when it was a town instead of a city. The city lost a certain charm and became corporate America. There were far fewer "problems" when Vegas was under 500,000 people. With big cities come big problems and we are seeing it all across the Valley.
What I'm ultimately getting at is there is a very strong possibility that UNLV becomes a footnote. As it stands with sports, UNLV was the only game in town. Didn't matter whether they were in the Final Four, making a bowl game or missing the post season or finishing below .500. It's all we had. Yeah, UNLV didn't live up to their end of the deal for much of the time, but they were still ours.
Say we end up with 2-4 major league teams.... to think that the competition for the entertainment dollar can't impact UNLV is shortsighted. To think that the media coverage (even though print is virtually dead) can't dilute UNLV into insignificance is shortsighted. To think that conversations at the corner neighborhood bar or grocery store are going to revolve around UNLV is shortsighted.... now granted, UNLV hasn't been important enough even locally to fully take advantage of those things.... but it was the only game in town, there hasn't been competition for it.
Oh, I agree that the Raiders and a stadium can be huge for the football program. It CAN be a game changer. But it's no guarantee, either. For it to be a game changer, it has to help UNLV football to get into P5 - a stadium is not the sole reasoning in getting into P5. It has to help UNLV WIN. Yeah, you'd think that a mega-stadium and the association with NFL is going to help with recruiting. And we have a staff that goes hard and has vision. But UNLV has NEVER won. We are talking about one of the worst D1 programs overall in the last 40 years. One of the very WORST. And now we are expecting a stadium and a good coaching staff to turn around 40 years of losing into being a consistent (not even high level) winner. Is it possible? Of course it is.
But even if we get a stadium and the football team starts putting up successive above 500 seasons, that's not an automatic guarantee to P5. Nothing guarantees it. The amount of politics and money and everything else that is required to line up properly is unnerving. Again, it could happen. But what happens if that P5 invite never comes?
Basketball isn't even at a crossroads, it's at ground level and fighting to get some respectability back. And it won't happen overnight. And this is UNLV's flagship program.
I certainly understand the excitement for becoming major league... that's alot of money, city wide recognition, new teams to back so a better chance at the "ultimate" celebrations... more jobs, etc. I get all that.
I'm just saying, UNLV can become completely irrelevant or 5th rate if/when these major league actions occur. A large part of the blame has to lie at UNLV itself, they've had PLENTY of time to align themselves with bigger things but the money and time has been squandered. Hopefully they make the most of whatever opportunity is left.
I look at other big cities with pro sports and see that in large part, the colleges take a back seat. There are exceptions.... Nova just won the big one in a 100% sports city, UCLA has done it in the past, USC, etc. And there are others. But when you look at the most successful programs, in general, there is a concentrated community effort in helping to elevate the programs. Usually they are smaller towns or just college towns. What's the best college sports program in Chicago, New York, etc? UNLV was prime to be one of those smaller towns that could benefit from the concentrated community effort that I'm talking about. Oh, and it was for about 20 years. But it's been anything but a concentrated effort for the past 20 or so years.
If Vegas weren't to get pro sports, there's absolutely no guarantee that the programs would thrive. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me to see the status quo of just fledgling along without a chance at a P5 invite. So I'm not saying pro sports would kill UNLV. I'm just saying that it could be the a final nail in coffin when it comes to significance in the city.
