Mötley Crüe’s Neil brings AFL back to Las Vegas

When he’s not on tour, Vince Neil spends his Sundays at the Red Rock sports book, watching and betting on NFL games.

“I’ve been a football fan my whole life,” he said.

Next spring, the Mötley Crüe frontman is betting on an Arena Football League expansion franchise to succeed in his adopted home sweet home of Las Vegas.

“It’s just a great sport. It’s a lot of fun. Every time you get the ball, you figure it’s going to be a touchdown,” Neil, who owns the team, said Thursday after a news conference at the Fremont Street Experience. “It’s a 50-yard game, so the action’s really fast and furious. If you like high-scoring games, this is what you go see.”

Neil named the team the Las Vegas Outlaws, which was the same name of the city’s now-defunct XFL team in 2001.

“I thought that was a cool name, and we just put out a record called ‘Nashville Outlaws: (A Tribute to Mötley Crüe),’ so ‘outlaws’ is in every portion of my life,” he said.

The Outlaws will have a natural division rival in the LA KISS — which is co-owned by original KISS band members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons.

When Neil was awarded the Las Vegas franchise, he said the fellow rock stars sent him “a big welcome to the AFL thing.”

“Yeah, yeah. Now you’re scared,” Neil said jokingly.

Playing the KISS at least three times a year tapped into Neil’s creative wild side.

“I was thinking to have like Mini Kiss and Mini Mötley on either side for a battle of the bands,” he cracked.

Neil, in the midst of the Crüe’s farewell tour, said he didn’t want to use a Mötley Crüe-themed name for the team because his bandmates aren’t involved with the venture.

“This has nothing to do with Mötley Crüe,” he said. “I’m the singer for Mötley Crüe, but you’ve got to remember KISS is owned by two guys: Paul and Gene. Mötley’s four guys, and three guys don’t care about sports. This is my team with my partners.”

Neil and his business partners, who include former Florida quarterback Bob Hewko, plan to take a page from KISS’ playbook — which has been documented on AMC’s “4th and Loud” reality show — and make attending an Outlaws game a feel-good experience for everybody.

“We want to make it rock ’n’ roll and make it a lot of fun for families,” Neil said. “Everybody is competing for that entertainment dollar Saturday night. You can’t take your kids to the casino on Saturday night, but you can take them to a football game and yell for three hours.”

The Outlaws will be coached by former KISS quarterback Aaron Garcia, the AFL’s career passing leader with 62,180 yards and 1,336 touchdowns. Las Vegas will kick-start its inaugural 18-game season in the 15-team league in March at the Thomas & Mack Center.

This will be the town’s third AFL team. The Las Vegas Sting played in 1994 and 1995, and the Las Vegas Gladiators lasted five seasons, from 2003 to 2007 — when a move from the Mack to Orleans Arena saw their average attendance dwindle from 10,115 to 5,383.

Neil, who has lived in Las Vegas since 1995, doesn’t expect it to be the same ol’ situation for the Outlaws, who he hopes will benefit from being locally owned and operated.

“We’re trying to get local business owners involved, and we’re going to have open tryouts for UNLV players and to try to get a lot of players from here to come in and play some great Arena ball,” he said.

After attending a Jacksonville Sharks game this year, Neil bought a piece of the action, becoming a minority owner of the AFL team.

“I wanted to learn about the AFL,” he said. “When I thought I was ready, I asked to get this franchise, and all the owners voted me in.”

Mötley Crüe music blared at Thursday’s news conference, and pyrotechnics were a big part of the show. And, of course, there were girls, girls, girls as Neil walked onstage with a member of the Outlaw Posse cheerleading squad on each of his heavily tattooed arms.

Has he been hands on with selecting the cheerleaders?

“I’m trying to be as hands on as I can,” he said, smiling.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354. Follow him on Twitter: @tdewey33.