Vegas is going all-in as a sports destination

TRAVEL

Sportsbooks like this one at Mandalay Bay are key to Las Vegas’ booming sports scene. PHOTO BY DAVID DICKSTEIN

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By David Dickstein

Bay Area News Group

Partying with 62,533 of football’s faithful at a rockin’ Allegiant Stadium only 17 hours after raising the roof with 17,696 hockey fans inside a rollin’ T-Mobile Arena, all located within walking distance of each other and a future big-league baseball stadium, it’s hard to imagine Las Vegas not always being the sports vacation destination that it is today.

Despite experiencing a growth spurt that hit half a million in population as early as 2020, the city with a long history of hosting boxing, exhibitions, tournaments and other world-class sporting events was snubbed for generations by North America’s four major professional leagues. A fear of being associated with the gaming industry is the oft-cited reason for their long-standing stance of not putting a team in the Las Vegas area.

Today, with ads for DraftKings, FanDuel and casinos saturating sports venues and broadcasts, that exclusionary business model seems more outlandish than Carrot Top’s prop-centric comedy shows at the Luxor. But right or wrong, for decades expansion into a market synonymous with gambling just wasn’t in the cards for the NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB.

That is, until one of those leagues shuffled the deck by looking beyond the sin of Sin City. Dropping its guard, and then the puck, the NHL thawed the four-way freeze-out, and on Oct. 10, 2017, the league’s first expansion team in 16 years made its home ice debut at T-Mobile Arena. It was a golden night for the Vegas Golden Knights, who improved their record to 3-0 in a season that culminated with an appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. The team would go all the way five seasons later, becoming the youngest to win the championship trophy since the NHL’s first major expansion in 1967 and in the process giving Las Vegas its first major sports title.

Odds in favor of the growing metro area earning another have increased now that the NHL isn’t the only game in town of the “Big Four” — no offense meant to the WNBA and its two-time champ Las Vegas Aces or the title-less Las Vegas Lights FC of the USL Championship soccer league, among other secondary pro teams in town.

Back to the bigs, for the 2020 NFL season, the Raiders moved their crib from old and outdoor Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum to new and domed Allegiant Stadium. Barring any setbacks, MLB’s Athletics will follow in the Raiders’ cleated footsteps, relocating from the East Bay to the Mojave; a fixed-roof, 30,000-seat ballpark on the former Tropicana hotel site is planned to be built in time for the team’s 2028 season. The NBA, which already holds the semifinals and finals of its in-season tournament at T-Mobile Arena, has publicly confirmed that Las Vegas is being seriously considered for expansion, and should that happen later this decade, a timetable league Commissioner Adam Silver has hinted at, Vegas will be the fastest market with teams in all Big Four leagues after having none.

Currently sporting two teams warrants “The Entertainment Capital of the World” to be called by another boastful nickname, according to a Vegas executive who sees action every second on the job.

“The entertainment capital is also ‘The Sports Capital of the World,’” said Lamarr Mitchell, who oversees some of the town’s largest sportsbooks as director of trading for MGM Resorts and BetMGM. “Las Vegas turned into the ultimate sports tourism market with the arrival of major professional teams.”

Going all-in on sports has helped the desert destination return to pre-pandemic tourism numbers, according to a fall report from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The flood of out-of-town fans most home NFL and NHL games create parlays into a cash cow for the valley’s sweeping and synergistic hospitality industry.

“Las Vegas makes it easy to build multiple days of nonstop entertainment around a game,” said Lance Evans, senior vice president of sports and sponsorships for MGM Resorts International. “When the NFL releases its schedule, for example, it’s such a big day. Whether it’s a Chargers game or a Broncos game or another match-up, people circle the Las Vegas date because it represents more than a sports experience. It means seeing a Bruno Mars residency concert at Park MGM, or going to one of the great Cirque du Soleil shows, or taking in some other top entertainment. It’s dining at some of the best restaurants in the world, checking out the hottest nightlife — it’s the retail, spas and, obviously, gaming.”

Doubling down on that thought, Mitchell said the beauty of a “game day” in Las Vegas is more than just the opportunity to make it an exciting “game weekend.”

“It’s also that everything is pretty much within walking distance,” he said from a Mandalay Bay sportsbook wall to wall with smack-talking bettors decked in red or silver and black for the big Raiders-Chiefs game. “When you factor in all the hotel rooms, options and amenities within the zone adjacent to Allegiant, T-Mobile and the future home of the A’s, you really can’t get that experience anywhere else. OK, maybe in the bigger cities, but New York and L.A. don’t have the gambling scene that Vegas has.”

Putting these logistical and recreational claims to the test, a recent Vegas weekend was built around a Saturday night Golden Knights game and a Sunday afternoon Raiders contest. Choosing Mandalay Bay for the three-night stay assured top accommodations and easy walks to T-Mobile and Allegiant in addition to proximity to some of the best dining on the Strip. A room at neighboring New York-New York, Park MGM and The Cosmopolitan would also offer conveniently located quality digs, but not one with a high-floor view of the A’s proposed ballpark site as requested.

Hoofing it from place to place on game days is almost always with a crowd, lending for a comforting safety-in-numbers feeling beyond seeing ramped-up police presence. This sense of security may be why the Modelo Tailgate Zone, billed as “the ultimate pregame party” for Raider Nation, has a surprising family atmosphere. Well, at least it did that day.Also visitor friendly in the district where Las Vegas’ major sports venues are located, many hotel-casinos flow into each other. Aria, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, New York-New York, Park MGM and The Delano are all connected by walkways, making it so you can amble between them without going outside — a godsend when desert temperatures are blisteringly high or bitterly low. Outside, pedestrian bridges provide safe movement for visitors and relieve traffic congestion on the Strip, and help contribute to a vibrant atmosphere that continues long after the lights of a sports venue are dimmed.

A big part of that vibe derives from the omnipresence of restaurants, lounges and bars. Hotspots found on the recent sports safari include Flanker Kitchen + Sports Bar. Located at the entrance of the Shoppes at Mandalay Place, steps from the walkway to Allegiant Stadium, this year-old watering hole scores with elevated grub and grog and more than 50 HD TVs, one with a 30-foot LED screen that a manager meticulously monitors so that rock music is what’s heard during commercials.

This level of attention carries over to Chef David Chang’s Momofuku at The Cosmopolitan. Credited with the rise of contemporary Asian-American fusion, the founder of Momofuku Noodle Bar in New York’s East Village and majordomo in downtown L.A. serves a menu terrific for before or after the game. His pork belly bao and crispy lamb ribs, two Momofuku musts, were flavorful favorites at the Michelin star-studded Bellagio Fountain Club, one of the tastiest and most tasteful viewing spots at November’s Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Speaking of life in the fast lane — as in over 220 mph fast as clocked in front of the Bellagio last month — 306,000 racing fans watched pole-sitter George Russell of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas team hold his position for all 50 laps. This was F1’s sophomore spin around the 3.8-mile circuit in the heart of the Strip. A stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard and a couple of other skid-marked streets have since returned to public use. Next fall, however, Mercedes-AMG Petronas will be back to defend against nine opponents, all vying for glory and proving that this desert town is big enough for professional teams not playing on a gridiron, diamond, court or ice to succeed.

“Las Vegas has quickly evolved into a thriving sports destination, and F1’s international presence puts Las Vegas on a global stage, reinforcing that it is truly ‘The Sports and Entertainment Capital of the World,’” said Emily Prazer, chief commercial officer for F1 and the Las Vegas Grand Prix. “There’s no better place in the world to host large-scale events than Las Vegas.”