LAS VEGAS — As the Golden era of Las Vegas continues to be blown to smithereens, literally, the Vegas Golden Knights continued to bolster the town’s professional sports era when they opened their eighth season as a member of the NHL with a 8-4 win over Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday.
It was nearly seven years to the day the Golden Knights played in their first-ever home opener, on Oct. 10, 2017, signifying the start of something special.
It was the beginning of major professional sports in Southern Nevada.
But nearly 17 hours earlier, in the wee hours of the morning, there was a different spark in the air, as Las Vegas Boulevard waved goodbye to one of The Strip’s oldest landmarks.
Sitting on the South end of the strip, the Tropicana Hotel and Casino opened its doors in 1957 and quickly became a hot spot for tourists and notable figures.
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The Oasis-like casino bore witness to the era of the Rat Pack along with serving as a mainstay in popular films like James Bonds’ “Diamonds Are Forever.” It solidified itself in history books with its integral role in the evolution of the Mob within Sin City.
By the 1970s, the city became the hub for entertainment. Fast forward to today, in true Vegas fashion, the entertainment factor remains, but a sense of reinvention has taken place.
And the Golden Knights have been a big part of that.
As the town bid farewell to the third-oldest hotel after 67 years, the anticipation for a baseball stadium at the site builds, as the Oakland Athletics have been approved to relocate to Las Vegas. If plans go as expected, the MLB franchise will debut in a state-of-the-art stadium on the site of the now-demolished Tropicana, in 2028.
The A’s will be the fourth major professional sports franchise to enter the valley – along with the NFL’s Raiders and WNBA’s Aces – but the journey of this newly acclaimed sports town all started with that first band of skating Golden Misfits in 2017.
“Every time you come in and a new year is starting, you kind of reflect – the first round exits, the conference final exits, obviously the Stanley Cup championship,” Shea Theodore, one of three remaining players from the original 2017 roster, told the Hockey News.
In their inaugural 2017 season, the Knights advanced to the Stanley Cup Final, falling in five games to the Washington Capitals, but still shocking the league as an expansion team. The Knights also ignited a true hockey culture in Las Vegas, as their success fueled a run to 2023 when they became the fastest expansion team to win the Cup in just six seasons.
The Golden Knights are still capturing hearts, evidenced by the 18,388 in attendance for Wednesday’s season opener against Colorado.
“When you see what’s going on outside (T-Mobile), when you see the fan engagement, when you see the growth of grassroots hockey … when you see how much this team is a part of the community, it’s very gratifying,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said.
Once known for the Rat Pack and nostalgic casinos, the Golden Knights are off and running for an eighth season in what’s become a mecca for professional sports, while the town continues to bid adieu to key parts of the city’s history.
