We knew that, eventually, Las Vegas would strike out on its own when it came to a sports arena. And the reason is one person: Mayor Oscar Goodman.

See, Goodman has worked tirelessly on downtown revitalization, and he’s had some big successes. But a key component of Goodman’s vision for the downtown area was always a major-league sports venue of some kind.

Sure, there are a lot of things going against it, most notably the fact that traffic sucks getting into and out of downtown. Freeway access is limited, and the idea of 10,000 or 20,000 or 30,000 people all trying to drive and go home at the same time is enough to give us nightmares.

But Goodman has never wavered from the idea of downtown sports. So we’re not surprised to see the city preparing to issue a request for proposals to build an arena downtown, either where Cashman Field sits now, or perhaps on the site of the existing City Hall, and property across the street from City Hall that the city bought when it was thinking of expanding its headquarters. (Don’t fear that the city is going to move to the ‘burbs, however; a new City Hall site is planned adjacent to the Union Park property.)

"It’s a city project. I want it in the city. I want it in the city’s core," Goodman told the Review-Journal. He’s said that even as a consultant studied whether Las Vegas needed a new arena at all (a totally foregone conclusion) and, if so, where it should be built. Most suggestions were for somewhere in Clark County, areas that are, frankly, probably better suited to an arena.

But two things about this that are encouraging: One, Goodman says that if another group builds an arena elsewhere that doesn’t require taxpayer funds, he’ll support it. That’s a patriotic stance for the mayor to take, even though he clearly wants to see something built downtown. But it’s the right stance: The last thing Las Vegas needs is competing arenas all over the place.

And two, Goodman isn’t forgetting his promise to build without taxpayer dollars, even if he does it downtown. "I made a promise we’re not going to tax constituents. I’m not going to break that promise," he said. That’s a principled stance for the mayor to take, since most of these arenas require sometimes-heavy taxpayer subsidies.

Now, the city did admit that it’s thinking of using things like tax-increment financing, offers of land or bonds offered against the increase in sales tax revenue, all of which are forms of tax financing. The increase in property taxes, for example, from before and after a project is built in a redevelopment area would otherwise flow into the redevelopment agency’s coffers, to be used on other projects. The city could otherwise sell the land underneath City Hall, say to a private condo developer, and make money for taxpayers.

But if a direct taxpayer subsidy is out, that’s a strong statement, not only that Las Vegans will support a pro sports team, but also that developers and teams shouldn’t be looking for a handout from the city of Las Vegas. And that’s a good place to start this debate, we think.

» Speaking of Goodman and outlays of taxpayer money, the mayor was right when he said that city marshals could have avoided a $45,000 taxpayer settlement had they been better briefed on the state of the law before they arrested a trio of homeless men sleeping near a "deposit of feces."

"I think it’s wrong that they weren’t briefed on this," Goodman said. "I’m not pointing at any specific individual. But people who are expected to enforce laws are fully advised what they can and cannot do."

We agree. The marshals were apparently unaware that the ordinance in question had passed "accidentally" and that City Attorney Brad Jerbic had said it would not be enforced, and that it was repealed shortly thereafter. (Apparently, the R-J is not a popular periodical with city marshals, either.)

As a result, each homeless man got $10,000 in a settlement with the city.

Now, far be it from us to say something cynical, but might we gently suggest that, had the city not engaged in a legal crackdown on the homeless, such a ridiculous ordinance would never have "accidentally" passed in the first place? Now, $45,000 isn’t a lot in the scope of things (the city’s overall budget is more than $1.5 billion for the current year, according to the city’s website). But it’s $45,000 that didn’t need to be spent, if only the city would adopt a more progressive attitude toward dealing with the problem of homelessness.

We’re just saying.

» The R-J falls in love with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. And apparently, there’s something up with the interim chairman of the state’s Republican Party? We remember reading about that somewhere.

» Whether Gov. Jim Gibbons has known software entrepreneur Warren Trepp for four years, 10 years or forever, Gibbons sure went to bat for his good friend back in Washington, D.C., the Sun reports.

» And finally today, a peek at a potential item that may be printed on a future Page A3 of a future edition of the Review-Journal: "The name of U.S. Sen. John Ensign’s spokesman, Tory Mazzola, was misspelled (again) Thursday in a correction, which was published to correct the misspelling of his name in a news story Wednesday about the Senate’s vote on drawing down troop levels in Iraq."

UPDATE: An alert reader of our acquaintance e-mailed to notify us that, should somebody wish to notify the R-J that it had, once more, misspelled poor Tory Mazzola’s name, it would take some effort. To wit:

The Review-Journal corrects mistakes. Bring errors to our attention by calling 383-026.

Well, you’ve got nine possible numbers, people. Better get dialing.