Fight Weekend

The Floyd Mayweather Jr/ Oscar De La Hoya at the MGM Grand Garden arena was not the only publicized fight in Las Vegas over the weekend. Following Mayweathers' split decision victory late Saturday night, the chairman and CEO of HBO was found sparring outside the MGM Grand casino with his girlfriend. HBO's chief, Chris Albrecht was arrested on suspicion of assault. No word yet on who won this fight.

HBO chairman/CEO accused of assaulting girlfriend

Mayweather wins split decision over De La Hoya

Newsflash: Champ Car still boring...even in Vegas

As we’ve mentioned before, we are race fans here at VegasRy, but that race sucked.

Just finished watching the Vegas Grand Prix, (on Tivo, thank god for the 30-second skip) which was won by the polesitter, Australian Will Power. Defending series champ Sebastien Bourdais was hampered by tire problems, and was never a factor. Spotlighted rookie Graham Rahal, son of Bobby Rahal, crashed just past the start/finish line at the drop of the green flag and finished last.

The race was a joke for many reasons; Bourdais had 3(!) flat tires, there were bad pit stops all around, and best of all, 6 of 17 cars finished on the lead lap. Seriously…6, on a 2.4 mile road course!

The stands looked pretty empty, probably due to the race being held on Easter Sunday, but more so the fact that people probably couldn’t be pried away from their slot machines. I wonder if the Champ Car fans were as unruly as the NBA fans…

Las Vegas resident Paul Tracy finished 3rd.

Full story here.

NBA Returning To Las Vegas?

A proposal to bring an NBA team to Las Vegas was sent to NBA commissioner David Stern today. Stern has long been opposed to such an expansion if gambling is allowed. He ok'd the All-Star game this year because the city agreed to take the game off of all sports books. The proposal did not include such an exception and unless Stern has a change of heart, has little chance of succeeding.

My opinion is that Las Vegas isn't a good candidate for a professional sports team. This year's NBA All-Star game fiasco aside, I can't see a team being successful on many fronts in Vegas. First, there is just too much going on to make it a big enough draw. Second, only "big" games will bring in reasonable crowds to generate the needed revenues of running a pro sports team. Lastly, Vegas is not the place for immature overpaid athletes. Unless a team of Shane Battier's were fronted, I foresee a Las Vegas team becoming the next Cincinatti Bengals. This is a reference to the frequent arrests the Bengals' players have been involved with recently.

The Maloof brothers (the Palms and Sacramento King's owners) recently said they were in favor of an NBA team being hosted in Las Vegas. (the assumption here is that their favor equates to them believing a team can thrive there) They certainly have a better business sense than I do, but this is one idea that I have to see to believe. It just doesn't seem wise as an owner, player, nor a fan.

Read about the proposal here.

(Edit: Mayor Goodman maintains that NBA games will stay on the board, even those of a potential local franchise. Yeah, the NBA in Vegas is not going to happen. Read about it here.)

Congrats Stewie!

Congratulations to Gossip Stew for taking down the first annual VegasRy.com NCAA challenge.

Stew owned the field including me and gamblin' Lou while blanking VegasRy.

Better luck next year everyone.

Preview: Vegas Grand Prix

We are big fans of racing here at VegasRy, but Champ Car seems to be on it's last legs. We have also been pretty rough on Downtown Las Vegas in our recent commentary. However, we think that the upcoming Champ Car race taking place downtown seems like a pretty cool idea.

Next weekend the Champ Car series Vegas Grand Prix will take place on a temporary circuit that snakes aroung Downtown Casinos:

Click to enlarge...
The race is on Sunday April 8th, Easter Sunday, but there are a bunch of festivities throughout the weekend.

We really are more NASCAR and Formula One (Did you know F1 raced in the Caesars parking lot in 1981 and 82?) fans, but this does sound pretty slick. Will keep you updated.

Vegas Grand Prix Official Site

Pay This Man His Money

Rumor has it Tim Floyd has cashed in on more than just a new high school recruit that could make or break his team's future this past week. Word around Vegas is that he had a hefty sum of dough on the Tarheels to cover on Friday night over his Trojans. After blowing an enormous first half lead, USC (with the help of a technical from Coach Floyd) failed to cover the 8.5 points they were getting much to the dismay of the the gambling world. It certainly appeared as though they gave up down the stretch. With Floyd's season done, he can now fly to Vegas to personally collect his winnings and celebrate his good fortune.

Credit for this post is owed to the good folks at JustCallMeJuice.

VegasRy's Tourney Challenge Update

Time for a quick update on the progress of the First Annual VegasRy Tournament Challenge.

Despite her early lead, it looks Like Allison is out of it due to her questionable pick of Memphis to win it all.

This leaves the likely winner to come down to a matchup of 2 puppies, Stewie and Louie. Stew has 2 teams remaining, and Florida winning it all, whereas the Lou Man has 3 teams left, and Georgetown cutting down the nets. Louie has 400 potential points left, and Stewie has 280, with a slim 60 point lead.

Keep an eye on the brackets here.

P.S. The Rebels fell to Oregon 70-66 on Friday night, despite a tremendous comeback from 17 down with just over 5 minutes to play. Turns out Oregon's outside shooting was too much for UNLV, which ended the season 30-7.

Do not hit a 16 against a 6 with this man...

LAS VEGAS -- Miami Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter was facing a misdemeanor battery charge Monday after police said he punched a National Football League rival after they exchanged trash talk at a casino blackjack table.

Porter was issued a summons after the 6:55 p.m. Sunday altercation with Cincinnati Bengals offensive tackle Levi Jones that Las Vegas police Officer Martin Wright said began inside the Palms hotel-casino.

Whole story here.

Big Day for the Runnin' Rebels

UNLV upset 2nd seed Wisconsin 74-68 Sunday to become the lowest seed (7) to advance to the Sweet 16 in this years NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

Looks like Stewie is the only one to have the Rebels advancing this far in the VegasRy Tourney Challenge.

The other Nevada team in the Tournament, The University of Nevada Wolfpack fell to Memphis 78-62.

NBA All-Star Game Wrapup

Last month, the NBA All-Star Game took place in Las Vegas. Even though Vegas doesn't have a team, (Although Mayor Goodman wants one) it seems natural to host the game in a city like Vegas, which is used to hosting major events and sporting events like last weekend's NASCAR race.

The game aside, it turned out to be a giant debacle, with it being Chinese New Year (big gambling weekend) and other large conventions in town. But it wasn't the conventioneers that caused the problems, it was people in town for the All-Star game that turned the city into a near war zone.

There were major incidents:

-Tennessee Titan (NFL player yes, but in town for the game nonetheless) player Pac Man Jones and his entourage were involved in a shooting at a strip club that left one bouncer paralyzed forever.

-A shooting at the MGM Grand that left one dead, and evacuated the casino.

-Shootings on the strip that closed sections of Las Vegas blvd multiple times.

Beyond those we have all heard about, there was just a general pandemonium that made it awful for the casual visitor to be there. Someone I work with (a Vegas vet) says it was the worst weekend he's ever experienced. He heard the gunshots, and was one of those evacuated from the MGM.

Now that the word is out, search any media outlet, and you will get hundreds of stories about the weekend. For example, a Google news search on NBA All Star Las Vegas yields 607 results. By contrast, a search for NASCAR as Vegas gets you 10...most of the referencing the NBA weekend.

Cab drivers are usually a great source of (possibly apocryphal) information, and we tried to ask every one this past trip on their thoughts on the weekend, and their responses were overwhelmingly negative. I managed to record a couple on my iPod, but the audio isn't tremendously clear, so here are a few of the points brought up.

(Again, take these with a grain of salt, but the sentiment still prevails)

Driver from Bellagio to Downtown

Listen Here

This guy said he will never work another NBA weekend again, he was personally stiffed twice, but didn't do anything about it because there were no police anywhere, and those that were on duty had better things to be doing

Driver from Downtown to Bellagio

Listen here

This guy went off! He was a deputy sheriff for 27 years, and never saw anything like that weekend. He knew (through connections...again, grain of salt) of 10-12 more shootings and 29 rapes. He went on to talk about Waitresses getting slapped around, a fight at the Wynn that spilled over to the Venetian and closed the strip for 4 hours. The interesting point here was that most of these incidents happened on hotel properties, thus they are being kept VERY quiet, as no hotel wants to be known as the scene of a crime.

Driver from Bellagio to Luxor.

Listen Here

On a lighter note, this guy tried (repeat: tried) to compare the NBA crowd to German Shepards that can't check for drugs. Still not sure what he was talking about.

What is really disturbing is the initial lack of media coverage. Stories eventually began to trickle out due to the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the weekend. Due to the major media outlet's (such as ESPN) affiliation with the NBA, much of this was kept hush-hush until it simply couldn't anymore. For example, ESPN, which is quick to jump on any story related to an athlete in trouble with the law, took until THURSDAY of the next week to even report on the Pac-Man Jones incident.

Needless to say, we won't be booking our tickets for the All-Star Game in New Orleans next year...

VegasRy Gambling Tip: Don't bet on your Alma Mater

So Iowa was a 4 seed, playing a 5 seed. Friday morning at Bellagio, they are getting 2 points. So, being the Iowa Alums that we are here at VegasRy, we rushed to the counter to give them our money.

3 hours later...

Purdue dominates defending Big Ten champ Iowa

Iowa loses by 19 and never competes. I wonder if there will be a refund in my next alumni club newsletter?

Big Ten Tournament

Join the VegasRy Tournament Challenge!

Click here to join our Tournament Challenge League, submit your picks and go up against VegasRy, RollThaDice, Louie the Gambling Puppy, and everyone else here at VegasRy.com!

Here's a little food for thought.

Tournament Challenge

Vegas oddsmakers do their tournament homework

Louie's Weekend Picks

Here are the Lou Man's picks for the upcoming weekend of college basketball tourneys.

Lou says "Run, don't walk, to your bookmaker with these picks!".

ACC Men's Basketball Tournament - North Carolina (+125)
Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament - Indiana (+500)
Pacific Ten Men's Basketball Tournament - UCLA (-125)
Big East Men's Basketball Tournament - Louisville (Of Course!) (+225)
SEC Men's Basketball Tournament - Tennessee (+400)

Lou's Homepage - http://vegasry.com/Louie/Louie.htm

Email Lou

Homefield Advantage for Busch

Kyle Busch returned home this week for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Las Vegas Moor Speedway. Busch finished second to Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson in 2005 here and looks to better that in the town he was raised. This is a homefield of sorts for both Kyle and his brother Kurt. Kyle is an 18-1 favorite at the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 and my money's on him to end up in the winner's circle. Couple the homefield advantage with the vast knowledge of teammates' Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson and we have a serious contender in Busch. Watch out for the 5 car on Sunday.