“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” the slogan says. Except it doesn’t apply to the Golden Knights.
In just their inaugural season, the Vegas Golden Knights are going to play in the Stanley Cup Finals.
“It’s unbelievable. Vegas in the Stanley Cup Finals is unbelievable,” Randy Swallow said.
The Clark County TV reporter and Calgary native moved to Las Vegas after graduating from SAIT. Swallow, also a Golden Knights season ticket holder, has been taking the temperature of Sin City’s playoff hockey fever for 770 CHQR’s Gord Gillies.
READ MORE: P.E.I.-born Gerard Gallant coaches Golden Knights to unlikely Stanley Cup final
“I just went on StubHub for grins right now, and the average price for a ticket (to the Stanley Cup Final) is $1,100, that’s what it is today,” Swallow told Gillies on Wednesday.
“Our seats — we’ve got some quality seats near the blue line — I think we’re paying about $400 this round.
“They’re going for $3,200 on StubHub today and I’m not even remotely tempted to sell them for $6,500.
“There’s no way — you couldn’t pay me enough money to not go to these games.”
LISTEN: Gord Gillies talks Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final with Randy Swallow
The area south of T-Mobile Arena, the home of the Golden Knights, has come a long way since the events of Oct. 1, 2017, when a gunman opened fire on the Las Vegas Strip, leaving 58 dead and 851 injured.
READ MORE: Girlfriend of B.C. man killed in Vegas describes his final moments
Megan Elise, a transcriber, has been splitting her time between Calgary and Las Vegas since 2015. Elise recalls how the Golden Knights have helped the desert city heal during the horrific event that happened just a five-minute drive from the team’s home.
“I really do think that if Vegas didn’t get a team, the strip would have taken a lot longer to bounce back from what happened,” Elise said via Twitter while on a flight.
“A lot has changed there. My friend works security at a casino. His uniform rules used to be that you had to hide your weapon. Now they want security guards weapons to be visible. They feel this will make people feel safer if they can see that someone with some authority has protection.”
WATCH: Las Vegas shooting documents reveal new details about victims and witnesses
Elise and her boyfriend Garret Wang share the belief that the team helped galvanize the city after the deadliest mass shooting by an individual in the U.S.
“Garrett actually believes it was the shooting in Vegas that has caused the Golden Knights to play the way they play this year.
“That they are more motivated to bring something positive to Vegas in the aftermath of something so tragic.”
And now that the team is in the final round of the NHL playoffs, more Las Vegans are buying in.
“It’s the casual fans that are so bought into it now,” Sparrow said.
“My girlfriend had never seen a hockey game in her life and now I couldn’t take anyone else in the seat next to me. She’s got a favourite player and has merchandise and is learning about hockey and is seeing a team on a Stanley Cup run.”
WATCH: Vegas Golden Knights discuss journey to Stanley Cup Final
Elise agrees, saying it’s not just fans of visiting teams filling the stands at T-Mobile Arena.
“More of the city definitely has joined the bandwagon. There wasn’t a lot for locals to do before — no reason for any of them to even go to the strip — now they do for games or people will have viewing parties at their own home.”
WATCH: Co-owner of Vegas Golden Knights speaks about team’s success
The Golden Knights’ medieval shield-like logo can be seen everywhere in the streets of Las Vegas.
“Everywhere you go, of course, people are just wearing Vegas Golden Knights outfits,” Sparrow told 770 CHQR. “You go to the supermarkets, at work everyone has it on. They’ve took the rules at work that on game days people are just dressed up in their Golden Knights stuff.”
For these Canadians, is it out of place that a city in the middle of the desert, previously known for gambling and the mob, has an NHL team?
“It actually doesn’t,” Elise said. “It is weird that they went this far for sure.
“What was more exciting for me is that I can actually openly be a fan of Fleury. He was and is one of my favourite goalies, but he played for the rival team of one of my favourite teams.”
“In the 28 years I’ve been here, every major league sport has been rumoured to move here,” Swallow said. “Ten years ago, nah, I didn’t think it would happen. I figured the NBA would be the first of the four major sports to come here. But… ‘Las Vegas, Nevada: Stanley Cup Finals,’ that sentence just doesn’t roll off the tongue.
“I mean, it does now, but a few years ago you never would have thought that.”
Comments