By Steve Keating
(Reuters) – When the Super Bowl hits the Las Vegas Strip in February it will mark the crowning moment in a remarkable civic makeover that has seen Sin City evolve from gambling hub to sporting capital.
Less than a decade ago Las Vegas was a no-go zone for major professional sport leagues over fears of having their products tainted by the stain of betting.
But today visitors are just as likely to come to the gambling oasis to attend a sporting event as they are to take a seat at the poker or roulette tables.
Last week the slots machines were spinning but so were the turnstiles at sport venues across the city with the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders, NHL’s Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights, WNBA Aces, the PGA Tour and NASCAR all in action.
“Ten years ago professional sports in Las Vegas it seemed like maybe I will live long enough to see that happen one day and all of a sudden it happens,” said Steve Hill, CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA). “The concern around the integrity of and playing in Las Vegas has completely disappeared and really flipped over.
“It’s been a fast change.”
Boxing and MMA remain big draws on the Strip but there are no shortage of newcomers from rugby sevens to curling looking to get in on the Vegas action.
The casinos are bigger and brasher than ever but among them are flashy state-of-the-art stadiums and arenas with a nearby patch of tarmac and desert earmarked for a new ballpark and the arrival of Major League Baseball.
LeBron James has expressed interest in bringing a National Basketball Association team to Las Vegas at some point when he transitions from player to potential team owner while Major League Soccer could plant its flag in the desert down the road.
“We are the sports capital of the world right now,” Oscar Goodman, the former mob lawyer and Las Vegas mayor from 1999 to 2011 who led the push to bring professional sports to the city along with his wife and current mayor Carolyn Goodman, told Reuters. “If there isn’t a sport here yet, we will have it in a couple of years.”
No city in the United States is more practised at hosting major events than Las Vegas but that ability will be put to the test when Formula One makes its Las Vegas return with a hugely anticipated Saturday night race down the Strip in November followed 12 weeks later by the Super Bowl.
Nearly every weekend 330,000 visitors flood into Las Vegas which Hill said is the LVCVA’s definition of full.
That will be no different for the Super Bowl and Formula One but the economic impact of those two events will be far greater with F1 alone injecting around $1.2 billion into the local economy.
Those two money spinning mega events will be regular attractions on the Strip with F1 signing a 10-year agreement and Nicki Ewell, the NFL’s senior director of events, saying Las Vegas will be added to the short list of cities on the Super Bowl rotation even before one has been played.
“Even without the game Super Bowl is the second biggest weekend (behind New Year) every year in Las Vegas,” Derek Stevens, the owner of several Las Vegas casinos including Circa, told Reuters. “The Super Bowl has been very important to Las Vegas it doesn’t matter if it is in the Rose Bowl or Miami.
“Super Bowl in America is far more than a game, it’s a cultural event.”
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto; Editing by Toby Davis)
