LAS VEGAS -- The NFL may bar NBC from promoting
one of its hit shows, Las Vegas, when the network begins carrying
Sunday night football next year because of the league's ban on
advertising related to the nation's gambling capital.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league couldn't rule out
extending the ban to the TV series, set at a fictional Sin City
casino-resort and centering on casino security chiefs played
by James Caan and Josh Duhamel.
"It is an issue we may have to address," Aiello said. "We
do have general restrictions on what can and cannot appear"
in ads on NFL telecasts.
Such a ban would be a blow to NBC, which is paying an average
of $600 million a year for the football rights. Las Vegas is
a persistent top-20 hit entering its third season that would
need to remain on through the 2006-07 season to produce enough
shows to fulfill an already-signed syndication deal.
"We still have 13 months before our first game, so we haven't
even discussed these issues with the league yet," NBC Sports
spokesman Mike McCarley said in an e-mail.
Las Vegas executive producer Gary Scott Thompson ridiculed
the notion of the NFL banning promotion of his show during games.
Thompson told the Las Vegas Sun last month he was excited his
show, which airs Mondays, would not only cease to compete with
ABC's Monday Night Football but also receive heavy promotion
during NBC's Sunday night games.
"I don't see that there's any reason not to promote it," Thompson
said Tuesday. "NBC should have something to say about that,
because they are paying a ton of money for these games. The
whole thing is absolutely absurd. My show is fiction. It's not
real life."
Yet the drama also dwells around gambling, something the most
recent ads from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority
don't do. None of the "What Happens Here Stays Here" ads the
NFL bans shows gambling or images of a casino floor. But NFL
officials have said the association with the city is too close
for comfort.
The dispute between Las Vegas and the NFL erupted publicly
in 2003 when the league rejected ads the city wanted to buy
for the Super Bowl. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told USA TODAY
at that time: "Las Vegas is synonymous to the public with sports
betting. Public perception of the integrity of our game is critical,
and this could negatively impact that perception."
Las Vegas officials, who have railed for years against the
ad policy, are taking a wait-and-see attitude. Mayor Oscar Goodman,
noting the NBA is bringing its 2007 All-Star Game to Las Vegas,
said the NFL should work with the city and begin exploring prospects
of locating a team here.
"If they ever want to make peace with us, this is a good place
to start," said the mayor, who is also chair of the tourism
board.
Billy Vassiliadis, CEO of the ad firm R&R Partners, which
creates and places ads for the tourism board, said if the NFL
allows Las Vegas to be promoted, he wouldn't need to run Las
Vegas ads because the show itself is a huge boost.
"I think we'll just stand on the sidelines of this one," he
said.
