NBA Weekend: How Bad Was It?
 

I spent a few days in LV right after President's Day weekend. After admiring the loooooong line of cars snaking down I-15 (eventually an accident on the northbound side causing 1hr of delays wiped the smirk off my face), we arrived at the huge Primm complex for a quick pitstop - I was totally blown away by the horrific behavior and boorishness demonstrated by the 'revelers' departing LV for points south. Among other things (pushing, shoving, yelling, screaming) I witnessed people throwing their trash onto the McDonald's parking lot after finishing their meals - no respect at all.

So after arriving at my hotel, it appeared both the staff and many guests are in kind of a shell-shocked stupor, like a tidal wave had just washed over them. I still had no idea what went on that weekend until the next morning - when the newscast had a long list of terrible incidents punctuated by viewers calling in to describe other things they witnessed.

Later that night, my fellow BJ players, the dealer and the pitboss were all talking about how terrible it was and the hotel staff was so happy the event was over they hoped the NBA would never be allowed near LV again. The guests said they would not come to Las Vegas ever again during the week before or after the event if it were held there again.

So...given I wasn't there to witness it myself, what actually went on that weekend? From what I heard, there were huge crowds, multiple near riots, horribly boorish behavior and more fights and assaults than they could count, including hotel and casino staff being verbally and physically abused.

Was it really that bad? I thought if Las Vegas could survive New Years Eve, it could survive anything.

Yes, it was really that bad. While the mainstream media glossed it over, LV was lucky it wasn't quite a riot. Coco's and MGM's Studio Cafe coffee shops closed, for different reasons: Coco's shut down after its employees walked off the job after 50% of patrons stiffed the checks. MGM had to shut down the Cafe because somebody sprayed pepper spray all over the place. Shooting incidents were rampant. Some athlete got capped in the a** in the self parking garage at MGM. Some other fool got iced while carrying a trash bag full of cash in a strip club. Others fired rounds into the air outside the Bellagio.

Inside it was more of the same, every hooligan in America with a $100 bill was there. I'm sure the casinos made money -- nobody seemed to be playing that skillfully.

The people who work for a living, especially those who subsist partially on tips, say never again.

I'd be perfectly happy if the NBA never came back. What a mess that weekend was! I heard that the NBA said it wouldn't come back to Las Vegas again unless the city built a larger venue. I hope they never do!

Good grief! I am so glad I stayed away until Monday afternoon - and I probably arrived a little too early at that. Sounds like Primm got off very easy - just some cleanup. At least no one at McDonalds got shot for serving the food too slowly.

One of the many misdeeds I heard about on TV (during the morning post-mortem call-in) was at least one incident where obviously intoxicated "patrons" jumped over the bar and beat the bartender senseless for refusing to serve them more alcohol - along with dealers who were threatened or intimidated when the house was winning.

The NBA created this out of control monster and expected LV to handle everything on their own? Now they complain that LV failed to provide an appropriate venue and they want to take their business elsewhere? I say good riddance! Let's hope ol' Oscar G. learned his lesson and keeps these types of events away from his city. I'm sure LV has permanently lost the patronage of many guests who were inadvertently visiting during that weekend and didn't know about the quagmire they walked into.

Now I have to hope and pray they don't bring the All Star game to South Florida :(

Travelaxe.com has a great convention schedule/calendar for Las Vegas - I think it's an excellent tool for checking on meetings and events which might be scheduled during one's planned visit and deciding whether to visit or reschedule.

We just got back from a long weekend (that turned into a longer weekend after the East Coast snow) in Vegas. Every dealer/taxi driver/any other breathing human I talked to had a horror story to tell. They said that many customers were too afraid to come out of their rooms out of fear of being shot or caught up in the middle of something very bad. What made it even more unfortunate is that many of the stories ended up having a racial overtone to them.

On a positive note, it looked like Vegas recovered just fine. The casinos were packed this weekend, and I didn't see or hear of any incidents.

I drove back to LAS the Sunday of President's Day Weekend. Unfortunately, I got stuck < 1 mile from the fatal accident while driving northbound on I-15. We were parked on the 15 for 1.5 hours. People were walking around the freeway while the CHP-biplane above yelled at us to get back into our vehicles. I barely made it to work on-time as my 5:15 drive from Santa Barbara turned into a 7.5 hour ordeal :(

I arrived in LAS the Tuesday after the ALl-Star game.
I heard it described repeatedly as 100 and 1000 times worse than NYE.
From what I heard from a friend who lives out there and assorteed others was about 25 tvs were taken from MGM.
Add to that mirrors, towels you name it.
One wall between 2 rooms was knocked out.
Open drug use on the street was rampant and Metro Cops were instructed to ignore it and tend to bigger crimes.

Maybe next time, Oscar should bid for the US Open golf championships instead

Unfortunate?

I think it’s unfortunate for several reasons. It's unfortunate when the actions of a few (even if it's a few thousand) go to reinforce negative stereotypes of any race. I heard a couple of downright racist comments from a few taxi drivers. I understand that those comments come after a weekend of despicable behavior from a bunch of gangster or gangster wannabes that decided to descend on Vegas and behave completely out of control. I don’t want to turn this into an OMNI topic. I just find the whole situation (for lack of a better term) unfortunate.

The NBA need to take this issue under consideration as there may not be too many welcome maps for it in the years to come. The attraction of the money it brings to a City may be outweighed by the carnage it leaves behind.