By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Things might be getting a little sticky for the Vegas Golden Knights in the city of Henderson.
A community group that opposes Henderson city officials using public dollars on a VGK minor league hockey arena at the Henderson Pavilion site says it has enough signatures to force a public vote on the $84 million hockey venue deal.
The group says it has collected about 2,900 signatures to stage a referendum in November asking city voters whether city government should use public assets to rebuild the Henderson Pavilion into the 6,000-seat Henderson Events Center to house the VGK’s new Henderson Silver Nights of the American Hockey League, a Triple A pro hockey league. The organization says 2,117 verified petition signatures are needed to force a public vote.
And now the group, which is called the Henderson Coalition for Responsible Government, is also raising another issue. Group members are contacting California-based Dark Horse Wines because they believe the Henderson Silver Knights logo looks strikingly similar to the wine’s logo. E&J Gallo Winery owns the Dark Horse brand.
Golden Knights owner Bill Foley, who just happens to owns multiple wineries and wine brands in California, ran into a trademark dispute with the U.S. Army three years ago over the Golden Knights name and mark because the Army’s “Golden Knights” are also the branch’s parachute team. The trademark dispute was resolved nearly two years ago with a trademark coexistence agreement.
Henderson Coalition for Responsible Government spokesman John Dalrymple said he works in advertising and believed the Silver Knights and Dark Horse logos were too similar.
“If I was working with a client, I would advise them to step away from that (logo) because the similarities are so close,” Dalrymple said Wednesday.
To read the full story, click here.