Things are picking up in Las Vegas, with a couple of new venues opening on the Strip. I know Las Vegas isn't for everyone, but it's interesting to hear about what promoters think will attract pleasure-seekers.



From today's Las Vegas Review-Journal:

SPORTS WITH PERSONAL TOUCH

With a 10,000-square-foot space inside the Luxor, Score! is a sports exhibition featuring game-worn memorabilia from franchises in pro and college football, college and pro basketball, hockey, boxing and U.S. Soccer. CEO Jim Beckmann said the personalized sports fan experience is "more about you, the fan, than what you're about to see."

But whatever does he mean?

Visitors, upon entering and paying the $20-$28 entry fee, are ushered into an agent's office where a multi-million dollar contract is signed with the sports team of your choosing. Yankees fan? You're now on the team with Jeter.

Guests then post a press release to Facebook and Twitter announcing their big deal, are handed an iTouch to start their tour and then are free to run through the players' tunnel.

While walking through the exhibition, questions pop up on your borrowed iTouch, ranging from endorsement deal offers to Hollywood party invites. How you answer the questions determines what path your career takes.

"Every time you come back here your experience can be new and unique and different," Beckmann said. "You can do as much or as little as you want."

Beckmann noted the exhibit will have "Smithsonian-quality presentations," such as a showcase highlighting the Lakers-Celtics rivalry and a Yankees section featuring jerseys from Derek Jeter, Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio. Hands-on activities are interspersed throughout, such as hockey stick-handling exercises, a NASCAR pit stop challenge and a pitching cage with a speed gun.

GUNS GALORE

Traveling north on the Strip, wandering tourists soon will find the Strip Gun Club, which is slated to open in mid-October. Justin Michaels, Ric Truesdell and Brian Barson are opening the 4,500-square-foot machine gun shooting range just north of Sahara.

Michaels acknowledged that other, similar ranges have opened recently - Machine Guns Vegas and Machine Guns 4 Fun come to mind - but said, "Competition is a good thing."

The Strip Gun Club will feature unique touches such as an antique vault door and a shipping container stood on end to help make itself stand out from the other ranges. But, Michaels said the group isn't worried about the range's tourist appeal. He's positive it will attract strong traffic.

"There are parts of the world where you can't shoot a gun or it's highly restricted," Michaels said.

Just off the Strip is Battlefield Vegas, which bills itself as "the ultimate shooting experience." It opened Monday. The machine gun range has a heavy military focus with helicopters, tanks and sandbags outside. Inside, visitors can shoot zombies or go for a more traditional range experience.

Range 702, yet another shooting range, is slated to open at 4699 Dean Martin Drive on Oct. 11. The facility features an on-site restaurant, store, onsite gunsmith and armory."

Were you counting there? Five new shooting ranges? I didn't realize guns where so popular. It sounds like a good place for theater shooters to get in some practice, doesn't it?

Speaking of that theater shooter in Aurora, Colorado: the guy was a medical student, supposedly smart, but then it turned out he'd been turned down by a lot of medical schools and people were saying he wasn't all that great. What might have caused him to go off the deep end (or maybe a symptom that he had) is he failed an oral exam at the end of his first year that was to determine if he could continue in the medical school.

Shortly before that, he consulted a school psychiatrist, and she alerted other people within the school that the guy needed to be watched. But then he dropped out, so they figured it wasn't their problem anymore. In a few short weeks, he bought a bunch of guns, including assault rifles, and grenades both at local sporting goods stores and over the Internet, learned how to use them to where he was able to re-load in a dark theater, obtained explosive materials and set up elaborate booby traps in his apartment, and dyed his hair orange. I suppose he is one of those people who gets up early every day so he can get a lot done.