Tourism guides are calling Las Vegas “the world’s largest arena” with a new advertising campaign aimed at attracting sports fans.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority display captures the growing sports landscape in southern Nevada and highlights the variety of events that are held annually in the area.
With the addition of the Golden Knights and the T-Mobile Arena, as well as the Raiders and Allegiant Stadium, major sporting events are becoming a major draw for tourists.
Steve Hill, CEO of LVCVA, said the ad was part of the transformation of Las Vegas from “the entertainment capital of the world” to the “sports and entertainment capital of the world”.
“It (sport) has really skyrocketed in terms of what visitors to Las Vegas think about … and emphasizing that fact as part of the Las Vegas brand is at the heart of the ad,” said Hill. “We’re going into the NFL season and that’s definitely important because the stadium is up and running. It’s already a big part of the relaxation of Las Vegas. “
And more and more visitors are returning to Vegas. Passenger traffic at McCarran International Airport in July approached pre-pandemic levels with 4.15 million travelers passing through the gates. That was only 8 percent less than the 4.5 million passengers in July 2019.
Major events at Allegiant Stadium and arenas could push that number above pre-pandemic levels in the coming months.
“The excitement that comes with the start of the NFL season and the Golden Knights behind it and everything else in town,” said Hill. “The timing is right.”
The addition of the Allegiant Stadium opens up a new world of events for Las Vegas, as the city has lacked a large, state-of-the-art venue in the past.
“We’re already seeing the benefit of this,” said Hill. “We had huge concerts, we had the Concacaf (soccer) final and the WWE.”
The WWE reported that SummerSlam, held in Allegiant this month, had the highest indoor turnout in the event’s history, with 51,236 fans. In addition, the WWE said tickets were bought by people in all 50 states.
Hill said tickets to UNLV’s home game against No. 7 in the state of Iowa next month are also being well tracked, so Allegiant Air has added additional flights to serve Cyclone fans.
Scott DeAngelo, chief marketing officer at Allegiant Air, said the airline added the flights after finding flights from Des Moines, Iowa to Las Vegas were sold out. “We quickly found that these were Iowa state fans who wanted to come to Las Vegas to see Allegiant Stadium and watch the game,” said DeAngelo, who also serves on the LVCVA board of directors.
The ultra-low-cost airline has also added special flights for select Raiders games this season, including the Raiders season opener against the Baltimore Ravens, the October 10 showdown with the Chicago Bears and the November 14 rivalry game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
“We call it a fan charter,” said DeAngelo. “Since these are successful, who knows, not only may additional aircraft be used on these routes, but other games may also appear.”
Governor Steve Sisolak said he knew firsthand that sports team fans travel well.
“We know that some people plan their stays around the sport,” said Sisolak. “My wife and I flew to Arizona, I’m a packer fan after being a raider fan to see them a few years ago. The lady we were on the plane with was her wish-list to visit every NFL stadium … so you travel well. “
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter. Send questions and comments to roadwarrior@reviewjournal.com.
