Tag Archives: Olympics

Las Vegas Pawn Shop Doubles as Reality TV Show, Proving Junk Sells

Well, it’s not all junk.  But many may think their dust-collecting, largely abandoned asset won’t bring much money- that is until they haggle with Rick Harrison, center, or his father, Richard, left, or son Corey who co-own a hugely successful Las Vegas pawn shop, Gold and Silver Pawn. 

Recession?  What recession?  Boom times are out the roof, thanks in no small part to the History Channel’s hit reality TV series “Pawn Stars.” 

Back in July, before the show started, the family business about 70 customers a day that showed up at the 713 Las Vegas Blvd. South address. 

And now? “We do about 1,000 a day,” said beaming Rick Harrison. 

The 35 episodes of national TV exposure have doubled revenue and generated a non-stop waiting line of 50 customers throughout the day, which usually ends at 11 p.m. 

The Harrisons have even added a surreal touch for their customers: a velvet rope for crowd control, ala a Las Vegas nightclub. 

Two of the more shocking items that recently arrived: a bronze medal from the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics and a 1998 Denver Broncos Super Bowl ring.  Rick Harrison said he paid $700 for the medal and $11,000 for the bejeweled ring.  The medal came from a shoebox found in a garage by a son-in-law who was cleaning up after his wife’s father died. The family, who lived in the Midwest, was vacationing in Las Vegas and decided to sell the medal. 

“Names aren’t etched on Olympic medals so we have no idea who it belonged it to,” Harrison said. 

Harrison said the ring owner identified himself as a former landlord of Bronco safety Tori Noel, a late addition to the team roster. The former University of Tennessee standout saw little action that year in Denver, the first of back-to-back Super Bowl titles, and suffered a career-ending injury the next year during training camp. 

It’s not the only Super Bowl ring pawned at Gold and Silver. Harrison said he purchased Brock Williams’ ring from the 2002 Super Bowl-winning New England Patriots. 

Williams, a former cornerback at Notre Dame, was paid about $2,000 for the ring. He never returned to buy it back, Harrison said.

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Major Rugby Tournament comes to Las Vegas

A huge sporting event is coming to Las Vegas starting early next year. The USA Sevens Rugby Tournament is moving to Las Vegas from San Diego, California. Rugby

Tournament organizers have just signed a multi-year commitment. 

Officials say they chose Las Vegas for a number of reasons, including its name recognition and its ability to attract visitors of all kinds. 

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman expects thousands of fans from around the world to come for the tournament each year. “You pick your favorite team, your favorite player, and they play in great spots. They come from all over the world. They’re going to be coming here to Las Vegas,” he said. 

Goodman also says he expects rugby’s popularity to grow now that it’s been added to the Olympics starting in 2016. 

The first tournament will be held in Las Vegas in February.

 

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Chicago Loses U.S. 2016 Olympics Bid? It can’t be! Recount!

Celebrities and politicians chimed in at the last moment and tried to convince more Olympic voters that Chicago is the only way to go for the 2016 Olympics.  Celebrities?  Barack Obama, the guy that’s the President of the United States whose trying to iron out healthcare?  RiodeJaneiro

Las Vegas Backstage Access wonders why so many writhed their hands and were in such a shock and awe tizzy when Rio de Janerio, right, received the city nod.  I mean, after all, didn’t we collectively spend over $200 million to attract the judges?  

Some argue that the upfront earnest marketing money spent could have been better applied to help feed the homeless or other socially viable programs.  After all, didn’t the unchecked national chicanery wipe out the life savings of thousands? 

Get a grip, people.   The U.S. didn’t just lose, it came in last place.   How could that be?   Maybe a contributor is that the U.S. has and is still suffering from the most devasting financial crisis and loss of consumer confidence on record. It’s not like the hotbed of high morale.  For a long time, charlatans, thieves by another name, ran the henhouse.  And it’s not over yet.   With each passing day new schemes are being discovered that rob people of their hard earned savings.

Ironically, on the same day of the Olympic city announcement, the national unemployment rates were also announced- which rose once again rose to 9.8 percent. 

The Olympics is all about having world competitive sporting games and crowning the winners at that moment in time. Nothing more and nothing less.  

Perhaps now some of this same fervor, if anybody cares, could be claimed and channeled into higher ROI projects, with a quicker return to a U.S. society that is crumbling with each passing day and on the potential verge of withering away due to misaligned priorities and just plain neglect. 

The U.S. didn’t really lose the Olympics bid– unexpectedly, we’ve just had a godsend infusion of good old fashioned common sense.  Thomas Paine is probably joyously rolling over in his grave.

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Michael Phelps Swims Upstream for Miss California USA Carrie Prejean

Despite all the flap and fallout arising from Perez Hilton’s question and Miss California USA Carrie Prejean’s truthful carrieprejeananswer about legalizing same-sex marriage during the Miss USA Pageant on Sunday in Las Vegas, it appears that the record-breaking eight Olympic gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps is taking to the blond bombshell like a beached fish out of water. 

Seemingly not able to get enough of each other, they met last September at the Palms Casino & Hotel in Las Vegas and Phelps became instantly hooked with line and sinker when seeing her hook when the two played basketball in the Hardwood Suite at the Palms, according to Jon Gray, assistant to Palms owner George Maloof. 

Prejean, captain of her Vista (California) High School varsity basketball team, continues to clandestinely roll with Phelps and “he always calls her when he is in town and they go out,” says Prejean’s grandmother, Jeanette Copolla when recently talking with Radaronline.com 

A photograph of Prejean, with a drink in her hands, and smoke-loving Phelps, who looked like he just came off a 24-hour flight from China, appeared in Radaronline yesterday. 

Meanwhile, Phelps continues to bait yet another fish, Carolynn “Caz” Pal, a cocktail server at Moon nightclub in the Palms.

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