Graney: Week that was in Las Vegas sports ushers in new era

Bruce Cassidy has lived in big sports markets. Chicago. Washington, D.C., Boston. Seen how communities become obsessed with specific teams. How the more there are, the greater the interest.

He resides in Las Vegas now. He can see it coming.

“Vegas has become a market like all the other major ones,” said Cassidy, coach of the Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights. “You have to build some history to do that and you build history by winning championships. So good for the Aces and us. Let’s see what happens with the Raiders and A’s down the road. Is the NBA around the corner?

“But it’s nice to be part of the infancy of it all. I might look back when I’m 85 years old and say I was there when it all started. Which would be kind of cool.”

We have just finished the week that was in Las Vegas sports.

And what a historic one at that.

A dominant team

The Knights won their championship Tuesday with a 9-3 victory against the Florida Panthers at T-Mobile Arena, where 19,000-plus crammed inside to watch history and another 11,000 enjoyed the celebration at the outside plaza.

Then, on Thursday, Gov. Joe Lombardo signed the bill that will provide $380 million in public funding to build a baseball stadium here for relocation of the Oakland Athletics.

Oh, yeah. The defending WNBA champion Aces just keep winning games.

Neither of the major newsmakers came as much of a surprise. The Knights won their best-of-seven series in five games and never once faced elimination during the Stanley Cup playoffs. They were borderline dominant much of the time.

And no matter how long a special session for Senate Bill 1 took — eight days in all — the legislature was going to pass it in the end. Politicians sure value their sports across this state when dispersing of public funds. Far more than they should.

Or maybe they’ve just never seen the A’s play. Or maybe they’ve just never seen how owner John Fisher runs his ballclub.

What the week did, in the end, was further supplant Las Vegas as at least in the argument for Sports Capital of the World. The NFL is here. The NHL. Likely now Major League Baseball. The WNBA. And you can’t go a week without hearing of the NBA eventually expanding into Southern Nevada.

“Pro sports are now part of the identity of our city,” Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon said. “You look at those things no one can ever take away from you and we’ll always have the pride of being the (first major league pro sports team in Las Vegas). With being Vegas Born.

“Look at the people outside the building (on Tuesday). That was incredible.”

Knights owner Bill Foley isn’t surprised at any of it — “I also think the NBA is coming,” he said slyly — but wonders how well the A’s will be able to fill 81 home dates a year.

Spend some money

It’s a fair assessment, especially if Fisher doesn’t change how he does business in relation to his roster. It’s a believe-it-when-we-see- it mantra now — that the worst team in baseball is also serious about spending money for the on-field product more than it has been in what seems like forever.

If it will, with Fisher’s blessing, loosen the purse strings. If it would really embrace a new business model. Nothing about Fisher at this point suggests he will.

But such questions are for another time. This week it’s all but assured the A’s are on their way.

In other such sports news, a top executive of a planned $10 billion resort — that would include $1 billion arena ready to house an NBA team — said on Thursday he would develop the project without public money.

I’m not sure sure that I believe Tim Leiweke just yet, but, man, what a fresh concept …

I don’t know what the Nevada Legislature would do with itself.

The week that was in Las Vegas sports. Big news is right.

Ed Graney is a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing and be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter