Billionaires Bringing Their Indoor Lacrosse Teams to Las Vegas

(Bloomberg) -- Indoor lacrosse is headed to Las Vegas -- for one game, anyway.

The National Lacrosse League will stage a game in Las Vegas, marking the first time in its history the indoor league will play in the gambling and entertainment mecca.

The Super Bowl weekend game between the San Diego Seals, who are owned by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. billionaire Joe Tsai, and the Colorado Mammoth, controlled by billionaire Stan Kroenke, is scheduled for Feb. 1 at the Orleans Arena on what is historically the city’s biggest sports weekend of the year.

A majority of Seals season-ticket holders will receive free hotel rooms on Feb. 1 and Feb. 2, a perk the team is calling a promotional first for season subscribers in any sport.

The game comes as the NLL prepares to open its 34th season later this month with 13 teams, including an expansion franchise in New York.

“As we continue to expand our amazing product to fans across North America and around the world, we are always looking to our future,” NLL Commissioner Nick Sakiewicz said in a statement.

The game could be a test run for Las Vegas, which has been mentioned as a possible site for an expansion team.

After years of being shunned by professional sports leagues -- which were opposed to wagering on their games -- Las Vegas is now home to big-time U.S. sports, including the National Hockey League’s Golden Knights. The National Football League’s Raiders are headed to Vegas from Oakland, California.

Tsai, who has a net worth of $10.7 billion, also owns the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and WNBA’s New York Liberty. Kroenke, meanwhile, also controls the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, NBA’s Denver Nuggets, hockey’s Colorado Avalanche and Arsenal of the English Premier League.

The NLL reported sales of almost 1 million tickets last season, up 28% from the previous season. Sixty percent of ticket sales were from people who never played lacrosse, the league said. League sponsorship is projected to grow 29% this season, the league estimates.

The NLL says it ranks third in average attendance for pro indoor sports worldwide, trailing only the NBA and NHL.

To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Soshnick in New York at ssoshnick@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, John J. Edwards III

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