Vegas has fallen in love with Golden Knights
LAS VEGAS » The Golden Knights’ gold-and-grey- onblack helmets are everywhere.
They’re on T- shirts and hats worn by mall patrons, on jerseys of moviegoers, on stuffed animals, on mugs and on bumper stickers deep in suburbia. Bars far from the city’s tourist- driven areas show the games on TV, and watch parties have become a regular activity.
The arena rocks when the expansion team that has taken the league by storm appears on its home ice. A city that for years longed for a major sports franchise has truly embraced the Knights.
“It’s so much different live than it is on TV. It’s a whole different experience,” said David Santangelo, a Las Vegas resident who is a season ticket holder and longtime hockey fan. “People fall in love with it. So many people I talk to at work are saying that they didn’t know it was so exciting. People are really starting to learn about it now.”
Santangelo, who was wearing a Knights jersey, was among hundreds who attended a party Monday in downtown Las Vegas to watch Game 3 of the Knights’ second- round playof f series against the San Jose Sharks. The Golden Knights have a 3-2 series lead after a 5- 3 victory over San Jose on Friday night.
For years, questions were raised over whether the tourist- driven city with a long history of hosting big events could support a big league team night after night. Gambling and a relatively small market size steered major franchises elsewhere. Before the Knights dropped the puck, there were naysayers even though initial ticket demand was high.
Average game attendance at T- Mobile Arena is now 18,042. Tourists and comped high- rollers have surely caught games. So have tennis greats Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, rapper Lil Jon, poker pro Daniel Negreanu and slugger Bryce Harper before baseball season started. But defying some of those early predictions, it’s been regular residents and their children who have filled the stands game after game.
The crowds bode well for the NFL’s Raiders, who are due to move to Sin City in 2020.
The Knights — who were 200-1 at many sports books to win the Stanley Cup before the season began — proudly declare themselves Vegas Born. Their success on the ice has certainly influenced attendance, but it may also have to do with the city’s desperate need for fellowship around the time the season opened.
The Knights’ home opener in October came only a few days after the city suffered the deadliest mass shooting in modern U. S. history. The team retired jersey No. 58 during its final home game of the regular season to honor the victims. A banner with 58 stars was hoisted into the rafters. The victims’ names were also projected on the ice.
“I think because all the players are from differ- ent places and Las Vegas is a melting pot of people from different places, it’s just really brought community together to have our own team,” said fan Angel Ashby. “This is a Vegasborn team. It isn’t from somewhere else.”
Ashby had rooted for the Colorado Avalanche, but got rid of the jersey when the Knights arrived. She and her friends rotate hosting watch parties.
The energy has existed at the arena from the beginning, but has progressively gotten louder with the success that followed. For the playoffs, the team has expanded the pregame festivities to include a huge knight’s helmet that is lowered from the rafters in front of the Vegas bench. The Golden Knights enter the ice through the front of the helmet.