Las Vegas would be perfect host for return of World Cup of Hockey

LAS VEGAS — They dropped the puck on the 4 Nations Face-Off Wednesday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal. But before Canada met Sweden, the NHL and the NHL Players Association dropped some big news.

The World Cup of Hockey is coming back and will be played in February 2028. It was last held in 2016. And since we’re in a Best vs. Best mindset at the moment with many of the sport’s top stars meeting over the next eight days, bringing back the World Cup will be a nice way to continue the trend.

The fact that the NHL will allow its players to compete in next year’s Olympics in Italy will get hockey fans’ juices flowing. And a lot of the participants in the 4 Nations are doing so with an eye on snagging a roster spot for the Olympics.

I don’t believe we’ll have any kind of international fatigue of having too many competitions. We’re talking about every couple of years and it’s certainly better than the current NHL All-Star 3-on-3 mini-game format. When you pull on your country’s sweater, the idea of coasting on the ice ceases right then and there.

The NHL announced that bids for cities to host the 2028 World Cup which will be played in February, will go out soon. And from where I sit, and yes, I’m a bit biased being a resident, Las Vegas would be the perfect place to host the competition.

It’s going to be in February, not July, so weather won’t be an issue. There’s no shortage of hotels so having a place for visitors to stay is not a problem. Our restaurants, casinos, bars and shopping caters to every economic level of visitation. And now that we’ve had an NHL team for eight years, visiting players are accustomed to coming here, staying here and performing here.

As for where to play, T-Mobile Arena is the obvious choice. But it will be 12 years old come 2028 and Golden Knights owner Bill Foley is floating the idea of a facelift for the building to the tune of $300 million.

But before you start screaming about public money to fund a private venue, the arena has a fund that has been accumulating money since the building first opened its doors in 2016 when The Killers and Wayne Newton performed. A portion of every ticket sold to every event goes into an arena capital improvement fund.
How much is in that fund isn’t known. But suffice to say, if Foley is talking $300 million, there’s probably more than that in the till.

But if you want to think big, how about playing the semifinals and gold medal game across the street?

The Athletics’ 33,000-seat ballpark is supposed to open in March of 2028, that’s a few weeks after the World Cup of Hockey. Let’s assume that everything gets built on schedule. How about having an international event to christen the ballpark? After all, the Golden Knights weren’t the first event in T-Mobile Arena. Heck, the Knights weren’t even in the first hockey game. That honor fell to the Los Angeles Kings, who played the Dallas Stars in a preseason game on Oct. 7, 2016.

The stadium will have a fixed roof so weather won’t be an issue. the added capacity — 33,000 vs. 17,500 — would be a nice enticement. And there’s plenty of ice around town for the participating teams to practice once they arrive.

There aren’t many logistical issues to deal with. Harry Reid International Airport is a mile or so away from the Las Vegas Strip. MGM Grand, which has a virtual monopoly on the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue, which is where the A’s ballpark will be located, can come on board as a sponsor and provide lodging for the teams as well as ticket and hotel packages for visiting fans.    

I doubt the A’s will protest. Especially since they’re receiving $380 million of public money and that they themselves have talked about bringing non-baseball events to the stadium. The only concern will be whether the ballpark will be finished in time.

And assuming it isn’t, perhaps Allegiant Stadium could be a backup. Obviously, you don’t need 65,000 seats for a hockey tournament but that’s easily solved by scaling down the size of the stadium.

There wouldn’t be a conflict with the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four, which wouldn’t be staged there until April. And the Super Bowl will be in Atlanta that year. So even if the Raiders were good enough by then to compete for a spot in the Big Game, their mission to get to Atlanta would have been completed beforehand.

But the hope should be for the A’s new ballpark and T-Mobile Arena to share the hosting responsibilities for the World Cup of Hockey. And if Vegas can host a Super Bowl, it surely is capable of putting on a hockey tournament for a couple of weeks.