Las Vegas is conference tournament central for leagues on the West Coast

For decades, the mere notion of Las Vegas serving as the epicenter of “March Madness” games would have been deemed so outrageous it would have provoked almost universal laughter.

But it’s been 14 years since the West Coast Conference – which crowns men’s and women’s champions tonight at Las Vegas’ Orleans Arena – blazed a postseason path by becoming the first conference to stage a neutral-site tournament in Las Vegas – and the first inside a casino. Now, the Las Vegas Valley is a March Madness mecca of sorts. The Mountain West has held its tournament at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center since 2007. The Big West (moved to Vegas in 2021), Pac-12 (2013) and WAC (’11) also moved their events there. The Big West is at the Dollar Loan Center, the Pac-12 at T-Mobile Arena and the WAC at Orleans Arena.

What’s more, Las Vegas will host the men’s NCAA tournament’s West Region later this month at T-Mobile Area, this season’s NIT semifinals and championship, and the 2028 men’s Final Four at Allegiant Stadium.

“It has really served us well – it’s become a destination for our fans,” WCC interim commissioner Connie Hurlbut told On3. 

Among those least surprised by Las Vegas increasingly securing college basketball postseason events is Steve Stallworth, who nearly two decades ago played an integral role in helping to end the taboo surrounding teams playing in casinos. 

Then the general manager of the Orleans Arena, Stallworth was involved in its design and said it was built for basketball. Problem was, the venue was about 500 feet from the casino, connected by a long hallway. Not only was it a casino, it had a sportsbook as well. Getting college teams to play there? Good luck.

Kansas and Florida had an agreement to play an early-season game in Las Vegas in 2006, but needed an arena after logistical challenges emerged with other Vegas-area venues. So Stallworth started pitching the Orleans Arena idea in phone calls to then-Florida AD Jeremy Foley, who said, “If Kansas is in, we’re in.”

Stallworth then called then-Kansas AD Lew Perkins, who didn’t return his call. Stallworth was so determined that he prepared to fly to Lawrence and just walk into Perkins’ office. But Stallworth received a call from Larry Keating, then-senior associate athletic director at Kansas, that changed everything.

That summer, Keating was flying to Los Angeles and told Stallworth he had a two-hour layover in Las Vegas. Stallworth picked him up in a limo and they drove to the Orleans Arena. They walked the 500 feet from the casino to the arena and envisioned the set-up. Keating looked around, paused and said, “What’s the problem here? Let’s do it.”

“Oh, my God, I couldn’t believe it,” Stallworth said of the breakthrough. “It took us years and years to get anyone’s attention. Even UNLV, my alma mater, would not do it. It took Kansas to do it, and from then we were rolling.”

Stallworth remembers it as a magical event. Dick Vitale called the game on ESPN2, and Kansas beat top-ranked Florida in overtime; that Gators team went on to win their second consecutive national title.

Keating later asked Stallworth, “Have you ever thought about hosting a conference tournament here?”

Keating’s son, Kerry, was then the coach at Santa Clara. Kerry garnered support among league athletic directors and then-WCC commissioner Michael Gilleran. Still, there was plenty of trepidation. In fact, in 2009 the Las Vegas Sun wrote this about the WCC moving its tournament to a casino: “Along with the rosary, there’s always confession on Tuesday morning.”

Stallworth said the WCC agreed to move its tournament to Las Vegas on two initial conditions. The games could not be put on the sportsbook at the Orleans Arena. And there’d be no alcohol in the general admissions area but it would be allowed in suite and club seats. (Stallworth fondly recalls all the conference ADs asking if they could get passes for the suite level.)

“There was nervousness,” said Stallworth, who now manages the South Point Arena and Equestrian Center for Michael Gaughan. “Everyone thought it was taboo. For them, a faith-based conference being the first, that was pretty amazing.”

Stallworth credits the late Keating, who died in 2021, with allaying concerns with a strong endorsement, thus opening the doors for the WCC’s move. “If it would have been any other school, I don’t know that we would have had the avalanche” of league tournaments moving to Las Vegas, Stallworth said. “When Kansas came to Vegas, in a casino with a sports book, every other school in the country said it must be OK.”

Since then, the line separating college sports from the sports gambling world has been blurred, if not all but erased. More than 30 states have legalized some form of sports betting. At least eight universities have secured sponsorship deals with sportsbooks. There’s even debate about which college football stadium will be the first to incorporate a brick-and-mortar sportsbook. 

Hurlbut said Las Vegas Events, the non-profit events arm of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, sponsors the WCC tournament, which will remain at Orleans Arena at least through 2025, for roughly $300,000. Las Vegas Events also reportedly sponsors the MWC tournament for $300,000 and the Pac-12 tournament for $500,000.

Even for mid-major leagues, staging the conference tournament in Las Vegas creates a big-game vibe. Consider the Big West, which had spent years playing its event in the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. When league staff solicited feedback from student-athletes in recent years, they indicated that playing in Anaheim seemed more like a garden-variety road trip rather than a special experience.

The pandemic prompted the league tournament to move to Michelob Ultra Arena in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise in 2021. Thus, league officials had an opportunity to visit the still-under-construction, $84-million Dollar Loan Center in the suburb of Henderson. That sealed the deal for the Big West, which played its first tournament there last season.

“Henderson wants to make this their championship,” Big West commissioner Dan Butterly told On3. “I try to make our events feel really big even though sometimes we may not have the resources. You still want it to feel really big.”

In the Las Vegas area, the March Madness presence continues to get bigger. Stallworth still laments the one conference tournament that got away: the Big Sky, which ran into issues coordinating scheduling. Las Vegas could have – and maybe someday will – cornered the market on the tournaments for all West Coast-based conferences. 

It dates to getting the WCC, which opened doors for others. Stallworth always knew the appeal of Las Vegas, with its array of offerings, would lure fans from all participating schools.

It has been such a striking evolution that now, long after it was considered taboo, Stallworth can’t even tabulate exactly how many basketball games are played in his city.

“Man, oh, man,” he said, “I can’t even keep track anymore.”