Las Vegas Sting

Arena Football League (1988-1993)

Sting Things

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Las Vegas Sting
Arena Football T-Shirt

The Sting was the first of three Arena Football League teams to make their home in Las Vegas’, setting up shop at the MGM Grand and the Thomas & Mack Center in the mid-90’s. 

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Background

Bill MacFarland’s Nevada Pro Sports was a short-lived effort to build a business around summer-time arena sports at the brand new MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas in the mid-1990’s.  While toiling as a minor league hockey player for the Seattle Totems in the 1960’s, MacFarland put himself through law school.  In the 1970’s, MacFarland served as President and Legal Counsel of the World Hockey Association and later took part in a failed effort to secure an NHL expansion franchise for Seattle in the early 1990’s.  After the Seattle NHL bid failed, MacFarland turned his attention to Las Vegas and the development of MGM Grand Garden.

Nevada Pro Sports’ first acquisition on December 1st, 1992 was an expansion franchise in the Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL).  The CISL was a start-up league whose investors included owners and arena operators from the NBA and NHL looking to fill building dates during the slow summer season.  With the MGM Grand Garden still under construction in 1993, MacFarland elected to defer the debut of his Las Vegas Dustdevils soccer team until the CISL’s sophomore campaign in 1994.  Soon afterwards, Nevada Pro Sports added an Arena Football League expansion franchise, the Las Vegas Sting, to its portfolio of teams set to debut in the summer of 1994.

Neither team drew much interest in Las Vegas, long known as a graveyard of pro sports franchises.  The Sting put an announced crowd of 10,109 into the MGM Grand Garden for their home debut on May 21st, 1994 against the Miami Hooters.  But by the Sting’s third home game in June, attendance plunged below 4,000 and the team finished the year with an average of 6,413, 9th best out of the league’s 11 teams.

In Competition

On the carpet, the Sting assembled the typical Arena Football collection of pro football nomads and castaways.

Before joining the Sting, two-year starting quarteback Scooter Molander last played for the Colts…the Espoo Colts of the Finland Football League.  Molander’s favorite target in 1994 was Tyrone Thurman. At 5′ 3″ tall and 135 pounts, the kick return specialist was likely the smallest Division I All-American in college football history back in 1988 at Texas Tech.

The Sting’s defensive leader was former UNLV standout Carlton Johnson, who earned All-League honors as a Defensive Specialist in 1994.

Demise

Disappointing as the attendance figures were, the Sting numbers were a box office bonanza compared to the Las Vegas Dustdevils indoor soccer team, which mustered an average of just 2,709 at the 12-000 seat MGM Grand Garden for their 14 home dates in 1994.  That was the worst figure in the 14-team CISL, despite the fact that the Dustdevils fielded a championship team that finished 17-11 and featured seven local graduates from the UNLV soccer program.

Following the 1994 season, MacFarland and Nevada Pro Sports moved both of their teams out of the MGM Grand Garden and into the Thomas & Mack Arena on the campus of UNLV.  The move didn’t help.  Sting attendance dropped to an average of 5,053 for six dates in 1995, which was worst among the AFL’s 13 franchises.  A postmortem by The Los Angeles Times claimed the Sting lost in excess of one million dollars in both 1994 and 1995.  The Dustdevils improved insignificantly to 3,274 per game, but it wasn’t enough to save the team.  Nevada Pro Sports folded the Dustdevils shortly after their second season ended in September 1995.

Nevada Pro Sports had more luck ridding itself of its failing Arena Football franchise.  In September 1995, a Southern California group purchased the Las Vegas Sting for an estimated $1 million and relocated the club to the Arrowhead Pond arena in Anaheim.  Re-named the Anaheim Piranhas, the former Sting franchise played two more seasons in the Arena Football League before folding in November 1997.

Post-Scripts

Former Sting owner Bill MacFarland passed away in 2011 at the age of 79.

Former UNLV and Sting defensive standout Carlton Johnson remained in Las Vegas, working as a substitute teacher in the Clark County school system.  In 2005, Johnson murdered his brother, 6-year old niece and his own 5-year old son.  Johnson had no prior criminal history or history of mental illness and offered no motive for the killings.  He was convicted on three counts of second degree murder in 2007 and is currently serving a 20-60 year sentence.

Las Vegas Sting Shop

Las Vegas Sting Video

The Sting take on the Milwaukee Mustangs on the road in Wisconsin. June 10th, 1994

Downloads

7-2-1994 Sting vs. Arizona Rattlers Roster

Links

Arena Football League Media Guides

Arena Football League Programs

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