CBS News
How Las Vegas, once known as “Sin City,” became an unlikely sports haven
Ten years ago, the idea of Las Vegas having a professional football team was unthinkable. Now, the city is home to three franchises and is hosting the Super Bowl for the first time.
What changed to make Sin City one of the biggest sports havens in the country?
For over a century, Las Vegas has been a city of reinvention, according to Michael Green, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, history professor. As early as the 1850s, people worried that the city had a reputation because of the presence of settlers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, who believed in polygamy. In 1905, a railroad connected Los Angeles to Salt Lake City and laid the groundwork for what would be Las Vegas’ destiny, as it became a railroad town that operated 24 hours a day. In 1931, gambling became legal in the city, and almost immediately, casinos began to pop up, setting the stage for decades to come.
As time wore on, the city only expanded, with bigger casinos being built, a highway connecting Las Vegas to Los Angeles, and businesses becoming producers for war materials. People came “in droves to work in the plants,” Green explained, and with this boom came organized crime interests that had been chased out of other cities. Soon came a post-war economic boom and jet travel that brought tourists to town, and Vegas’ transformation into Sin City was complete.
/ Getty Images
“You have these celebrities like Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Jerry Lewis,” Green said. “All these people coming here. And there was a saying that Las Vegas is where you went to be certified an adult.”
It was that tourist boom that brought college sweethearts Carolyn and Oscar Goodman to Vegas from the East Coast. As an attorney in the Philadelphia district attorney’s office, Oscar Goodman knew there was an opportunity out west, and in 1964, the pair made the move.
“It was a small, nice town,” Oscar Goodman said. He opened a legal practice that would soon take off and even played himself in the 1995 movie “Casino.” In 1999, he parlayed his fame into an unlikely run for mayor. He won nearly two-thirds of the vote.
As mayor, Oscar Goodman doubled down on his flamboyant public image and focused on cleaning up and reviving the city’s downtown, expanding on the efforts of the previous decade’s building boom, which had created the modern Las Vegas strip. He also focused on building civic and cultural institutions, including state-of-the-art hospitals and a performing arts center.
It wasn’t just entertainment acts that Oscar Goodman wanted, though. As mayor, he began the process of luring professional sports teams to Las Vegas. However, not everyone was on board, and former National Basketball Association Commissioner David Stern proved an especially tough sell.
“He said ‘Over my dead body,'” Oscar Goodman recalled. “He believed that Las Vegas, or any place that had live sports betting, should not have an NBA franchise there.”
Oscar Goodman served as mayor for 12 years. When he stepped down, the city elected who he calls “the most beautiful mayor in the history of mayors” — his wife.
Carolyn Goodman won 60% of the vote in a runoff election and took office in 2011. Under her leadership, Las Vegas finally landed pro sports, with a National Hockey League expansion team. It’s an achievement that means a lot to residents, Carolyn Goodman said. The Golden Knights‘ first home game was just days after the 2017 mass shooting at a music festival killed 60 and injured hundreds.
“You cannot even ask the question without thinking of one October when we had that horrific slaughter of innocent people,” Carolyn Goodman said. “They became our community. They helped everybody begin the process of learning to know they had to accept that that horrific problem happened, and that forever solidified how a sports team could be involved.”
Now, the city is a venerable sports mecca. In addition to the Golden Knights, it’s home to two-time WNBA champions the Las Vegas Aces and the National Football League’s Las Vegas Raiders. Super Bowl LVIII will be played at the Raiders’ home stadium.
“It’s the center of the universe now. It really is,” Oscar Goodman said. “People come from all over. In the beginning, they were limited to the gambling because where they came from did not have gambling. Now they come here for the shopping, and the food is outstanding, you can’t get a bad meal here, with the best entertainment in the world.
“… As long as we have smart people here, creative people, we’ll always be ahead of everybody else because we’ve set such a high standard for ourselves. That, I believe, is the reason for our success.”
NEW YORK — Former New York Gov. David Paterson and his stepson were attacked in New York City on Friday night, authorities said.
The incident occurred just before 9 p.m. on Second Avenue near East 96th Street on the Upper East Side, according to the New York City Police Department.
Police said officers were sent to the scene after an assault was reported. When officers arrived, police say they found a 20-year-old man suffering from facial injuries and a 70-year-old man who had head pain. Both victims were taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the former governor said the two were attacked while “taking a walk around the block near their home by some individuals that had a previous interaction with his stepson.”
The spokesperson said that they were injured “but were able to fight off their attackers.”
Both were taken to Cornell Hospital “as a precaution,” he added.
Police said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
The 70-year-old Paterson, a Democrat, served as governor from 2008 to 2010, stepping into the post after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer following his prostitution scandal. He made history at the time as the state’s first-ever Black and legally blind governor.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
A 17-year-old boy was critically injured and a person is in custody after a gunman opened fire on a SEPTA bus in North Philadelphia Friday evening, police said.
At around 6:15 p.m., Philadelphia police were notified about a shooting on a SEPTA bus traveling on Allegheny Avenue near 3rd and 4th streets in North Philadelphia, Inspector D F Pace told CBS News Philadelphia.
There were an estimated 30 people on the bus at the time of the shooting, Pace said, but only the 17-year-old boy was believed to have been shot. Investigators said they believe it was a targeted attack on the teenager and that he was shot in the back of the bus at close range.
According to Pace, the SEPTA bus driver alerted a control center about the shooting, which then relayed the message to Philadelphia police, who responded to the scene shortly.
Officers arrived at the scene and found at least one spent shell casing and blood on the bus, but no shooting victim, Pace said. Investigators later discovered the 17-year-old had been taken to Temple University Hospital where he is said to be in critical condition, according to police.
CBS Philadelphia
Through their preliminary investigation, police learned those involved in the SEPTA shooting may have fled in a silver-colored Kia.
Authorities then found a car matching the description of the Kia speeding in the area and a pursuit began, Pace said. Police got help from a PPD helicopter as they followed the Kia, which ended up crashing at 5th and Greenwood streets in East Mount Airy. Pace said the Kia crashed into a parked car.
The driver of the crashed car ran away but police were still able to take them into custody, Pace said.
Investigators believe there was a second person involved in the shooting who ran from the car before it crashed. Police said they believe this person escaped near Allegheny Avenue and 4th Street, leaving a coat behind.
According to Pace, police also found a gun and a group of spent shell casings believed to be involved in the shooting in the same area.
“It’s very possible that there may have been a shooting inside the bus and also shots fired from outside of the bus toward the bus,” Pace said, “We’re still trying to piece all that together at this time.”
This is an active investigation and police are reviewing surveillance footage from the SEPTA bus.