David Purdum, ESPN
Dan Quinn watched closely as the bracket for the NCAA tournament was unveiled on Selection Sunday. Like a lot of folks in Las Vegas, he had something on the line, but this year the stakes were higher.
March Madness has always been a big event in Las Vegas. It conveniently coincides with college spring break and St. Patrick’s Day. The city fills up with 20-somethings ready to party and bet on basketball, creating an atmosphere around town that’s fueled by testosterone and tequila. And this year, for the first time, the games are being played right on the Strip.
Quinn oversees MGM Resorts’ Las Vegas venues, including T-Mobile Arena, site of this week’s West Regional of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. On Selection Sunday, he was pulling for some blue bloods to land in the West and hopefully make their way to the regional in Las Vegas. He thought UCLA and Gonzaga could make for big crowds but coveted Kansas and the Jayhawks’ rabid fan base most of all. He got all three as the top seeds in the West Region.
“That was big,” Quinn, MGM Resorts vice president of entertainment operations, said at the time. “[Kansas’] fan base in Las Vegas … It’s going to be a home run.”
The Jayhawks won’t be making it to T-Mobile Arena this week, though, after being ousted by Arkansas in the second round. But with Gonzaga, UCLA and UConn coming to town, expectations, excitement and ticket prices remain sky high for an event that just five years ago would’ve been off limits to Las Vegas.
For decades, the NCAA maintained a policy prohibiting championship events in states with legal sports betting markets. It had concerns about putting student-athletes in the epicenter of American sports betting. But while the NCAA was keeping its distance from Las Vegas, major conference basketball tournaments kept coming to town, and professional sports weren’t far behind. In 2019, with legal sports betting markets beginning to launch around the nation, the NCAA rescinded its policy, and Las Vegas was awarded its first men’s basketball tournament.
The Super Bowl will be played in Las Vegas in 2024; the Frozen Four, the NCAA men’s hockey championship, in 2026, and the Final Four of the men’s basketball tournament in 2028. The NFL, NHL and WNBA have franchises in Las Vegas, and Major League Baseball and the NBA have their eyes on the city as well. In less than a decade, Las Vegas has transformed itself from a city deemed too risky for major sports to one of the premier big-game destinations in the nation.
“Vegas had proven that college basketball works here,” Quinn said, “and I think we’d gotten over a lot of the stereotypes or stigmas of having student-athletes in Vegas for those events. It’s been a long time in the making.”
Rest is here…
