Takedown Report

Look for Las Vegas to become a prime NCAA championship event destination

For nearly 40 years Pat Christenson has developed and recruited events to Las Vegas and for nearly 40 years the NCAA has basically told Christenson not to bother with them. During that time the NCAA prohibited their championship competitions from being held in states that allowed single-game sports betting. It was a policy that affected only Nevada and handcuffed Christenson, who couldn’t even bid to host an NCAA wresting championship, which he wanted to do.

The handcuffs were finally removed Thursday when the NCAA announced it had rescinded the policy. It was another milestone moment for a city that has gone from taboo to transformative for sports leagues. Over the past three years Las Vegas went from a city that had never been the home of a major professional sports team to being the home of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces and next year the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders. They opened the $375 million T-Mobile Arena to accommodate the NHL and NBA and next year will open the $1.8 billion Las Vegas Stadium to be the home of the Raiders and UNLV. Christenson, who is the president of Las Vegas Events and spent over 20 years at UNLV, smiled from his office Friday as he got ready to bid on a series of events Las Vegas has never hosted before. Rest of the story at
https://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-las-vegas-ncaa-championships-20190504-story.html?mc_cid=a1fc873b83&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

May 6, 2019 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized