Balsillie pulls bid for Penguins...

[Robbie]

According to Wikipedia, Several reasons have been cited for the lack of a major professional team in Las Vegas:

1.
Las Vegas only became a large market very recently.

2.
The perceived stigma of legal sports betting may be seen as being in conflict of interest with any potential pro sports team being located in Las Vegas by the NBA, the NFL, Major League Baseball and the NHL. The former three leagues have especially strong anti-gambling policies, going so far as to prohibit their leagues' personnel from having any involvement in gambling interests. There are currently no laws preventing Nevada sports books from accepting bets on local professional teams, and many casinos have said they would not voluntarily take a local team "off the boards."

3.
Some potential owners believe a professional sports franchise would have serious difficulty competing for an audience in a city with so many entertainment options. Also, Las Vegas is not on a work schedule similar to most cities. Other cities have most workers on a 9-to-5, Monday-Friday schedule. Las Vegas is a true 24/7 city, which results in a smaller potential market for a sports event when it is compared to a similar sized city.

4.
Las Vegas is still a relatively small television market, because most of the immediate surrounding area is sparsely populated and the more populous outlying areas were all drawn into the markets of larger cities farther away decades ago. For example, St. George, Utah is now part of the Salt Lake City market, and Bullhead City, Arizona is part of the Phoenix market. Las Vegas' TV market has been ranked as the 51st largest in the US, behind places like Albuquerque, Greensboro, Harrisburg, and Hartford. Furthermore, although Nevada's population is growing rapidly, it still had under two million people in the 2000 census. No other state with less than two million people has a major league franchise, and there is only one team (the Utah Jazz) based in a state with a population of less than three million.

The only ice that people in Las Vegas knows is the ice in their drinks.

But the Las Vegas Thunder of the now-defunct IHL played for six seasons from 1993 to 1999.

[TheLionKing]

Vegas is never happening. First of all, there's no arena. Even if there was, Vegas doesn't work because in the evenings the fans are either, a) in the casinos or shows, or b) working in the casinos or shows. Vegas isn't like your standard North American city in that its economy and employment patterns just aren't what they are everywhere else. The big casinos have no interest in bringing big time pro sports to town either, as this just takes away time and disposable income away from their tables.

There's a reason why no other major pro sports have ever seriously considered Vegas, and a reason why no investors from Vegas ever expressed any interest in the Penguins.

Totally agree