Vegas is reeling – but it has never felt so united
Sin City has been Gareth A Davies’s home from home for 20 years. He is confident it will recover from the atrocity
The city is a place of rebirth and renewal. Its wheels will keep turning
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. It is the world’s greatest entertainment centre. A Disneyland for adults, a place for fun and frolics. Not right now.
Las Vegas has been my home from home for almost 20 years when covering the biggest boxing and Ultimate Fighting Championship contests. I adore the place, even its gaudiness. I go there to relate the narrative of two men – or women – fighting over a pot of gold, gambling life and limb.
I have spent the best part of the summer there. It is hard not to feel haunted and horrified when you know the area intimately. There is always the knowledge that guns proliferate there, that this is the old Wild West. Taxi drivers have their weapons on the passenger seat beside them. It is a police regulation.
Vegas has always carried hidden dangers away from the Strip. But not like this, a horrific slaughter in a place where folk ought to feel safe. Where the victims fell has long been hallowed ground for the fight industry. Just a few weeks ago, on the very site of the tragedy, a giant tent housed 500 journalists as Floyd Mayweather and Conor Mcgregor took part in one of the richest fights of all time. The fight itself took place across the road from the Mandalay Bay at the T-mobile Arena.
The Mandalay Bay, the T-mobile Arena and the MGM Grand Garden Arena are at the southern tip of the 4.8-mile long Las Vegas Strip. It is so often a maelstrom of activities. Indeed, the city itself is arguably one of the global centres of sports entertainment. An NFL team and stadium is coming. And apart from being the Mecca of the fight world, there are global tournaments held there in poker, rugby sevens, rodeo, equestrianism, pool, snooker and wrestling.
Watching the terrifying footage of the horror, I thought of a Sunday last year, when, with a group of British journalists, I sat with Amir Khan, high up on the Mandalay Bay’s multiple-windowed suites, looking out on that very area, hours after the Briton was beaten by Saul Alvarez.
Two months ago, I spent the best part of a week at the Mandalay Bay, covering Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev battling it out for light-heavyweight supremacy. The Mandalay Bay’s Convention Center housed the UFC Fan Expo for several years, up to 40,000 aficionados spending their money in the dream of meeting their heroes. Any one of those events could have seen a group of visitors to Vegas caught up in the mania of one individual.
I head back to Las Vegas this weekend for one of the UFC’S biggest events of the year. Dana White, the UFC president, pledged £750,000 for the victims, and Mcgregor was “absolutely devastated”.
It is a city, Mcgregor said, with “so much energy and life, a city of celebration and enjoyment. I pray for all the victims, their families, and everyone affected by this senseless act of violence”.
A legion of fighters, and sportsmen and women have made memorable and moving statements. The people and citizens of Sin City have come together like never before. In the first 24 hours, The Gofundme account had more than 40,000 pledges, raising more than $3 million (£2.27 million). President Donald Trump made powerful statements, yet ignored what we all know needs to be said: that guns need close controls.
Las Vegas is reeling. Our hearts go out to all those affected. But it is a place of rebirth and renewal. The tragedy will never be forgotten. The wheels of Sin City will keep turning.