March Madness fans flock to Las Vegas, including Lagasse’s

Tim Husted has spent his entire adult life making a yearly March Madness pilgrimage from the Midwest to Las Vegas to park himself in front of a wall of TV screens for 14 hours on the first full day of NCAA basketball tournament games.

When he was 21, Husted scraped $500 together and bunked in a room with six guys at the Riviera. This week, Husted, now 36, has a $2,400 gambling budget for the male-bonding experience at a swanky Palazzo suite and Lagasse’s Stadium mega-sports bar.

“My Vegas experiences with March Madness have mirrored my financial advances in my career,” said Husted, a travel agency operations manager from suburban Minneapolis.

Wearing a vintage 1910 New York Yankees cap, Husted on Thursday enjoyed the anchor position at the end of a plush leather row at Lagasse’s.

Hundreds of hoops fans from around the country descended there to renew an annual rite of rekindling friendships, gorging on sports comfort foods and placing bets while watching four basketball games at once.

The Las Vegas venue with several seating tiers and private viewing areas was a guys-away-from-home sports mecca for Husted and his brother Andrew, 32, and pals Rick Donegan, 32, and Chris Ianuzzi, 32.

Each paid $300 for a day’s worth of booze and sports food, and a good seat to watch a sports competition that has evolved into America’s tournament .

“This is similar to ways people treat religion. You do it every year. You respect it. And you do with people you consider your family,” Tim Husted said.

The foursome functioned like a well-oiled wagering machine. Tim Husted spent nine hours this week crunching teams’ numbers and analyzing tendencies as the group bet-maker. Ianuzzi was the runner, making the bets at the book while Donegan documented wins and losses with a highlighter.

Andrew Husted just took it all in.

“This gives us material for the rest of the year,” he said.

Added Donegan, who lives in Chicago: “We start looking forward to this in June.”

The March Madness pals reserved their spots four months ago at Lagasse’s, where the first fans showed up Thursday in the darkness at 6 a.m. -- two hours before the doors opened and more than three hours before the first game.

About 2,000 hoops fans were expected to fill the sports bar through the day, with all 80 employees enlisted for duty, said Jerry Rodriguez, Lagasse’s general manager.

At $300 per seat, it’s no cheap stay at Lagasse’s. But the day-long experience is worth the price of admission, said Jason Kopka, 43, a senior housing complex finance executive from the Milwaukee area.

“You can kick back and relax. We made the reservation in November, so we didn’t fight for a spot,” said the flip flop-wearing Kopka, who came with his pal, Dave Lewis, 43, a fellow University of Wisconsin graduate.

Brandon Wing and Brad Spikes are 36-year-old professionals and Texas Tech fraternity brothers who treat March Madness’ first weekend as their personal High Holy Days.

Wing, a lawyer, flew in from Amarillo, while Spikes, a Nokia marketing executive, jetted from San Jose.

Sitting on the plush couch, Wing used his tablet computer gambling app to place bets while a Bloody Mary sat next to it mid-morning.

“You don’t even have to leave your seat,” Wing said.

His buddy Spikes clarified that remark: “Well the only time you have to leave your seat is to go to the bathroom.”

All the while, Lagasse’s servers were delivering a steady diet of wings, pizzas, burgers, nachos and steak sandwiches.

“It’s not exactly a health trip. It takes a few years off of your life,” joked Spikes.

“But,” observed Wing, “this is the mecca for watching basketball.”

Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273.