San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York became the latest professional sports figure to draw a response from Sheri’s Ranch this week. After York’s arrest on prostitution-related charges in Ohio became national news, the Pahrump brothel offered to explain how Nevada’s legal brothel system works and invited him to learn the difference between buying sex illegally and visiting a licensed brothel in a county where prostitution is permitted. The prostitution charge against York was later reduced to disorderly conduct, and he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges.
Anyone digging through the Sheri’s Ranch archives will quickly discover that sports have been turning up around the brothel for a surprisingly long time. NFL owners and former players, championship boxers, basketball tournaments, a Stanley Cup run, Formula 1 weekends and even a Raiders quarterback have all made appearances in the ranch’s history. Sometimes Sheri’s weighed in after a prominent sports figure made prostitution-related headlines. Other times, the connection was simply the huge number of sports fans traveling to Las Vegas for a major event.
Before Las Vegas Became a Major League Sports City
Sports had a place at Sheri’s well before Las Vegas had the Golden Knights or Raiders. When the ranch completed a major resort expansion in the early 2000s, the new facilities included a dedicated sports bar, themed bungalows and Jacuzzi rooms. The sports bar is no longer active and has since been replaced by a more contemporary bar and grill lounge.
There was even an attempt to bring professional boxing directly to the property. Don Elbaum, the longtime boxing promoter who was later inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, once planned a series of monthly fights at Sheri’s under the name “Bordello Boxing.” The idea never got off the ground, but Elbaum remained enthusiastic about the pairing. “Boxing and prostitution is a marriage made in heaven, or wherever,” he later said.
By 2014, Sheri’s was seeing the effects of major sporting events in a more direct way. During March Madness, the ranch projected at least a 50 percent increase in revenue for the opening weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament, with hotel bookings helping drive expectations as basketball fans poured into Southern Nevada. The tournament connection returned the following year. At the time, Las Vegas was still primarily a place where visitors came to bet on sports, watch major events and make a vacation out of it. The city did not yet have an NHL or NFL franchise of its own.
Then 2015 arrived, and things got considerably more colorful.
2015 Was a Strange Year
In January, former UNLV star, NBA player and television analyst Greg Anthony was arrested in Washington, D.C., on a solicitation charge. Sheri’s answered with a blog post aimed broadly at professional athletes, television analysts, sports journalists and others in the industry, pointing out that Nevada already offered a legal alternative for people who wanted to purchase sexual services. Anthony’s charge was later dismissed after he completed the requirements of a deferred-prosecution agreement.
Only weeks later, Warren Sapp was arrested in Phoenix following the Super Bowl on prostitution-related charges. Sheri’s invited the Hall of Fame defensive tackle to visit the ranch and experience legal prostitution instead. The commentary was characteristically blunt, suggesting that interest in prostitution within professional sports was hardly unusual. Sapp later completed a counseling program under an agreement with prosecutors, and the solicitation charge was dismissed.
A few weeks later, the sports story was completely different. Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao were preparing for their long-awaited fight at the MGM Grand, with no arrest or prostitution scandal involved. Sheri’s created an extravagant $100,000 fight weekend package that included two fight tickets, round-trip airfare, transportation, lodging and a weekend at the ranch with its then 24-woman lineup. When Mayweather fought Conor McGregor in Las Vegas in 2017, a similar $100,000 package returned.
Major fights had long been part of Las Vegas tourism, filling hotels, restaurants, casinos and clubs throughout Southern Nevada.
Then Las Vegas Got Teams of Its Own
The arrival of the Vegas Golden Knights changed things again. Las Vegas was no longer simply hosting other people’s teams and events. It had a major league team of its own, and in 2018 the expansion Golden Knights made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final in their first season.
Sheri’s joined the citywide excitement during the playoff run, reporting increased business as the Knights advanced and offering the team a victory celebration if they won the Cup. The Washington Capitals ultimately spoiled that ending.
The Raiders moved to Las Vegas in 2020, giving Southern Nevada an NFL franchise and turning Allegiant Stadium into another major draw for visitors. When quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo signed with the Raiders in 2023, Sheri’s invited him and a few of his new teammates for a complimentary resort visit.
Formula 1 soon added another enormous sports weekend. The Las Vegas Grand Prix brought racing onto the Strip beginning in 2023, and Sheri’s has since welcomed F1 visitors with lodging and experience packages built around race weekend.
The NFL Keeps Coming Back
One type of sports story, however, has remained familiar.
In 2019, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft faced two misdemeanor solicitation charges in Florida following an investigation involving massage parlors. Sheri’s responded with a post titled “The NFL Needs Prostitution Training,” offering to educate owners and players about Nevada’s regulated brothel system. The criminal case against Kraft was eventually dropped after courts blocked prosecutors from using the video evidence on Fourth Amendment grounds.
Now Jed York has brought prostitution back into an NFL headline. Sheri’s once again offered to explain how Nevada’s legal system works, more than a decade after Greg Anthony and Warren Sapp first put the ranch into similar conversations and seven years after Kraft.
Along the way there have been NCAA brackets, championship fights, Stanley Cup dreams, Raiders quarterbacks, Formula 1 cars and more than a few prostitution stories involving prominent sports figures. After Greg Anthony, Warren Sapp, Robert Kraft and now Jed York, you might think the distinction between illegal solicitation and Nevada’s licensed brothel system would be fairly well understood by now. Apparently not. Well, Super Bowl LXIII is coming to Allegiant Stadium in 2029.
Photos:
Sheri’s Ranch, Pahrump, Nevada, October 13, 2008. Photo: Larry & Teddy Page / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. at the official Mayweather–Pacquiao weigh-in, May 1, 2015. Photo: rcelis; crop by Prettyboy361 / Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0.
Vegas Golden Knights, 2017. Photo: Matt Boulton / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Robert Kraft, 2012. Photo: David Silverman / New England Patriots, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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