Gotta See It: Drone tours Las Vegas hockey arena

Elliotte Friedman sits down with prospective Las Vegas NHL owner William Foley to get his thoughts on why the NHL will work in Vegas and his connection with Wayne Gretzky.

As the hockey world awaits the NHL’s decision on whether to grant an NHL franchise to Las Vegas and hopeful team owner Bill Foley, erection of the prospective club’s home continues.

In a video promoted by the ticket-driving machine Vegas Wants Hockey, we are granted a drone’s view as it flies through the under-construction Las Vegas arena, which should be a completed fixture of the Vegas strip in about a year.

The state-of-the-art arena’s facial-scan technology vaguely frightens me, but this footage is pretty cool:


For the watch-paint-dry crowd, there is also a round-the-clock live stream of the rink’s construction with a countdown to opening (354 days, 9 hours, 55 minutes, 12 seconds at time of writing) because, well, Internet.

A meeting to discuss Vegas expansion will reportedly take place between Foley and the NHL’s Board of Governors and Foley in June, when the league hosts its annual awards ceremony in Sin City.

The Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance passed a resolution Thursday encouraging the NHL to strongly consider installing a team in the arena being built by MGM Resorts International and Anschutz Entertainment Group.

“Las Vegas is the largest city in the nation without a pro sports team, and a NHL team here would do wonders for both our community and economy,” Tom R. Skancke, CEO of the LVGEA, said in a press release. “There’s an obvious positive impact of jobs, tourism, and media exposure from televised games. But this is also about community pride.

“So often in Clark County we find ways to divide ourselves by politics, industry, local jurisdiction, and many other things. A key tenet of the LVGEA is fostering regional unity, and a NHL team in Las Vegas would aid those efforts.”

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(video via Shawn Kellogg/YouTube)

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