.Vegas gets a big boost up in A story published by the Las Vegas Review Journal entitled “New .vegas domain could transform online marketing.”
Interestedly in the article, Bill Arent the Director of the Las Vegas Office of Economic and Urban Development” is quoted as saying:
“”Las Vegas will reap financial rewards from that pioneer status. Dot Vegas will share 10 percent of all .Vegas registration revenue with the city of Las Vegas, or nearly $4 on a $39.95 domain fee and estimates .Vegas will yield $250,000 in fiscal 2015 for the agency, which has an annual budget of about $970,000.”
At $4 a domain name it seems the city is only budgeting receiving revenue based on less than 65,000 registrations.
Jothan Frakes, Jennifer Wolfe and Mike McLaughlin of GoDaddy are all quoted in the article.
Although the article which features pictures and interviews with the .Vegas registry principles Dusty Trevino and Jim Trevino was published during the TRAFFIC conference which both Dusty and Jim attended the only domain conference to get a mention in the article was Namescon:
“Frakes already has launched namescon.Vegas, for his trade show, which he expects to draw about 1,000 people in January.”
The article goes on to explain how the rollout of .Vegas will occur:
“The rollout of .Vegas will happen in three stages.
Stage 1, trademark sunrise, runs from Monday through July 31 and is reserved for companies with registered trademarks — Caesars Entertainment’s Caesars Palace brand or MGM Resorts International’s Bellagio nameplate for example.
Local big businesses don’t seem ready to jump on the .Vegas train, though. Caesars Entertainment didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment, and an MGM Resorts International spokeswoman said she was unaware of the launch.
Stage 2, land rush, runs Aug. 15 through Sept. 15 and is for people or businesses wanting first dibs on domain names. It costs extra — an application fee of at least $110, on top of the usual $40 to $60 annual lease. But for enterprising small businesses, that’s where opportunities are the biggest, Dusty Trevino said. The contractor who can reserve plumbing.vegas, for example, wins an edge on Web-based referrals.
Stage 3, general availability, opens Sept. 15. The only cost is the the annual lease fee, but options might be limited because early adopters will have snapped up the best names.
Dusty Trevino is quoted as saying:
To help protect the city’s image, Dot Vegas has worked with registrars to spike about 300 nettlesome names, so forget about porn.vegas, or pedophile.vegas. Nor will you be able to register domains with “the four words you’re never supposed to utter,” said.
“Mayor.Vegas and City.Vegas also were taken off the table to prevent nefarious use.”
Jim Trevino is quoted as saying:
“This will drive the brand into every home, into every computer in the world that has Internet access 24 hours a day, every day of the week. Every time .vegas pops up, it reinforces the Vegas brand and allows us to permeate every nook and cranny in the world. It’s dynamic, real and pervasive. No amount of money can buy this kind of outreach.”
