I'm a Vegas local and have not heard much about this. It would not surprise me if it were true however.
This has been an absolute shitshow since they first started talking about the A's coming here, what seems like a decade or more ago.
I'm a big believer and market saturation when it comes to sports. I think MSP having the Twins, Vikings, Gophers, Wolves, Wild, and whatever soccer team they have, all hurt each other in terms of revenue. People only have a finite amount of resources, and sports interest really.
I knew the first professional franchise, whatever it would be, was going to crush it in Las Vegas. The people were hungry, and at the end of the day, it's a destination city where visiting fans are always going to want to go. And they have absolutely crushed it since Day One.
Same for the Raiders; I speculated a year before they played a game that I would be able to get at least double face value for my tickets for at least the first three years. And those numbers were conservative it turns out, often I've dumped them for 3X face value or more.
Hard core fans of both teams often bitch about how many visiting fans are in their arena/stadium but they should embrace it, I know I do; those people are bringing their money and leaving it here and filling the stadium. It's a beautiful thing.
But for those reasons, I would hate to see an NBA franchise come here (saturation, and other factors), and I'm really indifferent on the A's coming here. What a complete unmitigated dumpster fire though. Wowzers.... They had to leave Oakland though. Oakland is a cesspool of epic proportions, a financial death sentence for professional sports teams. I'm glad the Raiders and A's both left.
