Basketball conferences driving money, fans through Vegas

Tuesday night at Orleans Arena, Craig Paurus cheered Gonzaga to victory in the West Coast Conference tournament championship game.

Then 12 hours later, the 48-year-old drywall contractor from Spokane, Wash., was at the MGM Grand Garden arena, rooting on Washington State University in the first game of the Pac-12 Tournament.

Paurus is one in a growing legion of college basketball fans who visit Las Vegas to luxuriate in no fewer than four college basketball conference tournaments this week alone in what is a big sports month for the valley.

He and his wife expect to spend $3,000-$4,000 on their hotel room, game tickets, gambling and food this week.

“We set a daily budget for ourselves,” said Paurus, wearing a Gonzaga ball cap (with matching Zags logo tattoo on his right calf) and a Washington State shirt. “Of course, we never stick to it.”

Free-spending roundball fans following their favorite colleges in the West Coast, Mountain West, Western Athletic and Pac-12 conferences are expected to spend millions of dollars this week, offering a hefty midweek boost for hotels and restaurants. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported the following visitor and spending counts for three of the four tourneys:

▶ West Coast Conference (Orleans Arena): 3,100 visitors spending $3.1 million in non-gaming impact.

▶ Mountain West Conference (Thomas &Mack Center): 6,325 visitors spending $5.5 million in nongaming impact.

▶ PAC 12 (MGM Grand Garden Arena): 7,525 visitors spending $8.4 million in non-gaming impact.

Numbers for the Western Athletic Conference (Orleans Arena) were unavailable.

The hoops fanatics include third-grade teacher Marvin Cassler, 43, who drove from Salt Lake City to watch his beloved Pac-12 Arizona Wildcats.

Cassler expects to spend just $1,000 this week. The Tucson, Ariz., native is sleeping in his car at a sold-out federal campground in Red Rock Canyon. A basketball fan, after all, has his priorities.

He spent $400 for game tickets, $200 for a team mascot event, $80 a day on food and drinks and $60 for a weeklong yoga pass.

“I do have free tickets to go to the ‘O’ (Cirque du Soleil) show,” Cassler said.

The quartet of conference tourneys are an appetizer for the NCAA Tournament next week, when hoops fans from around the country pack sports bars and books on the Strip.

The four tournaments collectively function like a National Finals Rodeo or a NASCAR weekend because like-minded sports fans — people such as Paurus — inject the city with high sports energy and revenue, South Point General Manager Ryan Growney said. South Point is hosting the San Diego State and Boise State teams.

“It’s basketball central and a beautiful kickoff to March Madness,” Growney said. “It gets everybody ramped up”

As a point of comparison, the 10-day National Finals Rodeo had attendance at Thomas &Mack Center of nearly 180,000, including nearly 44,000 out-of-towners. The NFR’s nongaming spending was $74.5 million. While the college tournaments are a fraction of those numbers, MGM Grand is enjoying a midweek bump in room occupancy and revenue because its arena is hosting the Pac-12 event, MGM Grand President Scott Sibella said.

Room rates are up 25 percent to 30 percent, while the 13,500-seat arena is expected to sell out, Sibella said.

The Pac-12 tourney will be at the MGM arena through 2016, but talks have started to move it to the $375 million arena being built behind New York-New York on the Strip by MGM Resorts International and Anschutz Entertainment Group, Sibella said.

At Orleans Arena, Tony Taeubel, Orleans senior vice president and general manager, said the WCC and WAC tournaments at his arena come at an ideal time because March “is not so hot anymore from an occupancy standpoint. These tournaments help out occupancy rates and restaurants.”

Eight WCC and WAC colleges are staying at the hotel, Taeubel said.

Typical per capita spending at The Orleans is more than $100 for room and food during the week and more than $200 on the weekends, he said.

The West Coast has held its conference tournament at Orleans Arena since 2009, while the WAC has been at The Orleans since 2010, Taeubel said. Both conferences are negotiating to extend their deals, Taeubel said.

At Thomas &Mack, the Mountain West Conference has a seven-figure tournament budget, which includes paying for the travel, hotel and food expenses of 10 men’s teams and 11 women’s teams. (San Jose State’s men’s team is ineligible to play.)

The Mountain West teams are staying at The Mirage, Hard Rock Hotel and South Point. There are 350 credentialed media documenting this week’s games at the UNLV arena, while 275 credentialed media are a mile away down Tropicana Avenue at the MGM Grand venue.

“It adds up to a significant impact,” said Dan Butterly, Mountain West senior associate commissioner and tournament director.

Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Follow him on Twitter @BicycleManSnel