NHL in Vegas
Shea Theodore and the Golden Knights ready for home opener
Less than a week into their first NHL season, the expansion Vegas Golden Knights are leading the league in converts.
Every day, non-believers become hockey followers.
“I’ve met quite a few people who have never been to an NHL game and yet they bought season tickets,” Golden Knights president and CEO Kerry Bubolz told USA TODAY Sports. “That’s amazing when you think about it.”
Others gave up deeply rooted ties.
“I had a guy who is a life-long (Los Angeles) Kings fan,” said Todd Pollock, the Golden Knights vice president of ticketing and suites. “He said if the Kings are here, I’m a Kings fan. Otherwise I’m a Knights fan.”
Pollock saw him at a preseason game and said he now sports a Golden Knights jersey. “He told me: ‘I might not be a Kings fan too much longer,’ ” Pollock said.
Anyone who thought the NHL was gambling by going to Las Vegas has lost that bet so far. The Golden Knights, scheduled to play their first home game Tuesday (10 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network) against the Arizona Coyotes, are the highest-profile and most anticipated expansion team in NHL history.
StubHub reported that seven of the top 10 highest-demand games were Golden Knights games, including their opener, which was No. 2 behind the opening of the Detroit Red Wings’ new Little Caesars Arena.
“There are a lot of people who were born and raised here that have had a dream of a major professional team for years,” Bubolz said. “Finally, it’s going to happen.
Golden Knights mania has heightened by the team winning its first two games on the road, with James Neal scoring the winning goal in each.
Neal played for the Nashville Predators in last season’s Stanley Cup Final, but he says his first two games with the Golden Knights have been “some of the best moments of my hockey career.”
“We are trying to do everything we can to bring a positive light to the city,” Neal said. “I think we are off to a good start.”
Veteran defenseman Deryk Engelland said it was clear immediately that the city was going to overwhelmingly support the team. “Now that we’ve started, at my kids’ school, some of his friends and kids from other classes figured out who I was,” he said. “To me, that’s what it’s about, to see the excitement in kids when they get to meet you.”
According to Westgate Sportsbook’s Jay Kornegay, the Golden Knights are a 200-1 shot to win the Stanley Cup. Yet he’s noticed there are more people plunking down money on the Golden Knights than the other long shots.
“We are talking $10 tickets or $20 tickets. It’s not like they are investing a week’s pay,” Kornegay said. “I know a lot of this is about having a souvenir. They just want the ticket that says they ( bet) on the Knights in their first season. They are looking at it like it is a memento.”
Kornegay laughs. “That’s not to say if the Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup they wouldn’t cash that ticket.”
That’s unlikely to happen, although the NHL did design expansion draft rules to make the Golden Knights more competitive than expansion teams of the past. No. 1 goalie Marc-Andre Fleury owns three Stanley Cup rings, and Neal is a one-time 40goal scorer.
Coach Gerard Gallant said the team spent considerable time analyzing players’ character and chemistry before the expansion draft, and that strategy appears to be paying off.
“We came to training camp wanting to become a team as quickly as possible, and we have done a good job of that,” Neal said.
T-Mobile Arena seats 17,500 for hockey. But Pollock said obstructed view, standing room and even a fifth-floor lounge will be overflowing for Tuesday’s game. Pollock said he could “sell thousands more” tickets if he had them.
“People are crazy about this game,” Pollock said. “We are having to turn a lot of people away.”
One of the Golden Knights’ objectives is to extend their fan base beyond the city limits. “The Las Vegas brand is so internationally well known,” Bubolz said.
The team’s local TV distributions includes all of Nevada plus Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and parts of Arizona and California.
The Golden Knights could have sold out their entire season but capped season tickets at just over 14,000 to ensure that even the casual fan can see a game live.
“If we had the same 17,000 people in the building every night, it becomes a closed fraternity,” Pollock said. “You really have to open it up.”
It’s not casinos buying up tickets. Roughly 92% of the Golden Knights’ season ticketholders are individuals who live in the county. Pollock guesses that roughly half are transplants who moved to Las Vegas from somewhere else.
“We have a real savvy fan base,” Pollock said.
Expansion teams expect some of their fans will be fans of other teams as well. But the hope is that it will diminish over time.
“It’s cool to see people shift allegiances,” Pollock said. “We want everyone to be a Knights fans 44 nights a year. But if it is 43, that’s OK, too.”