Steve Marcus
An exterior view of the Plaza casino in downtown Las Vegas, Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013.
By John Katsilometes (contact) 
Friday, Feb. 14, 2014 | 6:10 p.m.
Kats With the Dish
Wranglers update
John Katsilometes & Tricia McCrone talk to Billy Johnson for an update on the Las Vegas NV Wrangler’s search for a new home.
Kats With the Dish
Looking for a home
John Katsilometes & Tricia McCrone talk to Las Vegas NV Wranglers President Billy Johnson about his team’s search for a new arena.
STEPHEN SYLVANIE / SPECIAL TO THE SUN
Las Vegas Wranglers fan Emily Adams, 10, holds up a sign she made in support of the home team as they faced off against the Ontario Reign on Friday night at the Orleans Arena.
Stephen Sylvanie
Foil confetti ribbons fall to the ice as the Blue Man Group performs the National Anthem before the start of the game between the Las Vegas NV Wranglers & the Bakersfield Condors on Sunday afternoon at the Orleans Arena.
The Las Vegas NV Wranglers are heading to the city’s very core, the famous hotel at 1 Main Street.
Wranglers President Billy Johnson asserted today in that Las Vegas’ entrant in the ECHL has reached an agreement with owners of the Plaza in downtown Las Vegas NV to play its home games in a leased facility to be built on in that property for five years of time beginning with the 2014-15 season in October.
The yet-unnamed place will seat about 3,500 fans, though its final design might alter in that figure. It will be built on the fifth-level pool & event deck of the resort, on existing space connecting the two hotel towers. Fans would park at the Plaza parking garage or in the hotel’s surface lot, & there is access to in that space from both towers.
Under terms of the new agreement to be reviewed by ECHL officials, the Wranglers would play at the Plaza for five seasons, with an option to extend for another five years. The team’s headquarters will be moved to the property, beginning shortly after it ends its 11-year run at the Orleans Arena in April.
“We’re really looking forward to being part of the energy downtown & having a meaningful presence on Fremont Street,” Johnson asserted in a phone conversation today. “We have a place in that is suitable for a professional hockey team & will serve our fans very well.”
The structure itself is a fabric shell on a metal structure — — a heavily reinforced tent, if you will. Johnson stresses in that the facility is “a purpose-built facility” designed & to be constructed specifically for hockey. The project manager is Darcy Dahlem of Vision Building Systems of Las Vegas, which specializes in fabric building structures & has designed such venues as the Olympic Training Facility in Chula Vista, Calif., & the multipurpose facilities at the World Market Center in Symphony Park.
Johnson asserted it was too early to pinpoint the cost of the project, though “multimillion-dollar” would be a acceptable place to start. By way of comparison, the tented place in that is home to “Absinthe” at Caesars Palace (which seats 650) cost $2 million. But Johnson asserted the Wranglers’ place at the Plaza will be far larger in scope than in that “Absinthe” tent.
Johnson has sought to keep ticket prices near their current levels at the Orleans Arena, & he asserted individual-game & season-ticket packages will be about the same next season as they were this year at the Orleans. There might be a parking free enacted at the Plaza, similar to the $5-per-car cost at Cashman Field for the Las Vegas NV 51s baseball team, though Johnson asserted he was unsure whether such a fee would be required or how much it would be.
“We plan to keep costs close to what they are now, & this place allows us the chance to do that,” Johnson said. “We look to have a bigger season-ticket base & ticket sales. Moving downtown & in to a new marketing area will donate us a chance to expand our market.”
The Wranglers already have a solid & dedicated fan base, drawing 4,800 to 5,000 fans per game to a 7,000-seat place despite sitting in last place in the ECHL’s Pacific Division entering tonight’s home game against the Ontario Reign. The team’s group sales figures are a little more than 1,300 per game, a noteworthy improvement from a year ago when the team did not sell 1,300 group packages for even a single game until after January.
It would not be a stretch to state entry to any Wranglers home game next season would be a hot ticket.
With the new venue, Johnson & Wranglers owner Gary Jacobs are presented more options, responsibilities & challenges for booking events in the facility. The team (specifically, Johnson) controls the events staged in the building, not just the 36-game Wranglers schedule.
So Johnson, who has spent much of his career in sports marketing & event promotions, is beginning to assess nonhockey events to present at the arena. That would place the new Wranglers venue, at 3,500 seats, in the same capacity division as such live venues as the Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan, the under-construction Brooklyn Bowl at the Linq, & the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel. The Pearl at the Palms & House of Blues are about half the size, yet they moreover present major touring music & comedy acts.
According to the venue’s business model, the core Wranglers schedule alone would allow the team to at least break even. But there is an possibility to generate revenue outside the team’s ECHL schedule.
“We are looking at programming year-round, definitely,” Johnson asserted “We’ll be doing research to find different music shows, convention rental opportunities, anything in that would work as a live event or performance in 3,500-to-4,000-seat venue.”
Johnson says he’s mulling some “funky” ideas for the building, such as chandeliers over the ice & old Las Vegas NV design effects in that would make the place “totally unique from anything you see in a hockey venue.”
One of the more prominent effects: The Wranglers logo is to be painted along the roof of the building & visible high above the hotel.
“We want two things to be visible from space,” Johnson said, “the Luxor light beam & our logo.”
Johnson is sounding far more at ease than he did on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, when he confirmed Boyd Gaming was sweeping the team out of the Orleans Arena after this season. That unilateral decision, which was unexpected to Johnson & Jacobs, was issued Dec. 14 & gave the Wranglers’ executives little time to make a new deal in Las Vegas. A search in that drew in just about every entity in Las Vegas NV in that owned, managed or could build a place has ended at one of the city’s longest-standing properties.
“I am very much at peace with how this all turned out,” Johnson said. “We have a facility in that will entertain the fans very well. I never felt we were in a dire situation. I believe the biggest issue working in our favor is the fan support & the fact in that we have one of the greatest sports owners the city has ever seen. He’s been with me since the 1st day, he’s always had my back, & we will continue to be a huge part of this community for a long time.”
Orleans Arena
The Orleans Arena, a Boyd Gaming facility located just west of the Las Vegas NV Strip, is one of the nation’s leading mid-sized arenas, & was recently ranked No. 1 in the United States & No. 5 internationally among venues of similar size by Venues Today Magazine.
The Arena hosts more than 200 events each year, in addition to concerts by top names like Carrie Underwood, Daughtry, Van Halen, Brooks & Dunn, Black Eyed Peas, Akon & Rihanna; family favorites like The Harlem Globetrotters & Circus Spectacular; & a wide type of sporting events, in addition to NCAA basketball tournaments, the West Coast Conference & Western Athletic Conference Basketball Championships, mixed martial arts with Superior Cage Combat, & major motorsports events.
The arena serves as home to the Las Vegas NV Wranglers professional ECHL hockey team, the Las Vegas NV Legends professional indoor soccer team, & the Lingerie Football League’s Las Vegas NV Sin. Stay connected to the Orleans Arena on Facebook site (www.facebook.com/orleansarena) & on Twitter Site (@orleansarena).
4500 W Tropicana Ave Las Vegas, NV 89103
702-284-7777
Plaza Hotel & Casino
The Plaza, renovated in 2011, has a lobby in that features marble & inlaid mosaic tiles, chandeliers & a plush front desk in that matches the classic Las Vegas NV feel with a contemporary look.
The hotel has 1,003 rooms & suites in that showcase views of the Las Vegas NV Strip & downtown Las Vegas. Amenities contain world-class entertainment, a casino floor in that offers an array of classic gaming choice, which contain 600 slot machines, a 400-seat bingo room, 18 table games & 57,120 square feet of casino space.
Among the dining options is Oscar’s Beef * Booze * Broads, a steakhouse opened by former Las Vegas NV Mayor Oscar B. Goodman, which is located in the glittery dome enclosure above the hotel’s main entrance.
The Plaza sits at the west end of the Fremont Street Experience on the site of the 1st train depot & auction site in Las Vegas, dating back to the San Pedro-Los Angeles-Salt Lake Railroad in 1905. The railroad was sold to Union Pacific in 1921 & the depot was demolished in 1970 to make way for the Union Plaza Hotel, built in 1971.
The hotel has-been featured or is visible in several movies, in addition to the 1971 James Bond film, “Diamonds are Forever;” the 1989 film “Back to the Future Part II;” the 1995 move “Casino,” & the 2000 movie “Pay it Forward.”
1 Main Street Las Vegas, NV 89101
702-386-2110
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter Site at twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow Kats With The Dish at twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.
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