Las Vegas embraces the Super Bowl – and a new vision of itself

On game days, the football pilgrimage starts across the highway.  

Crowds thread through gold-paneled casinos, pyramid-shaped and gaudy, before emerging onto a street-turned-pedestrian walkway. Ahead is Allegiant Stadium, the $2 billion home of the Las Vegas Raiders. But the scene also reveals something more: a new vision of Las Vegas itself.

While many of the fans making the trek from the famous Las Vegas Strip are local, more than half are not. Pro football, it seems, is now a part of the Vegas tourist experience. When local officials agreed to pay $750 million of the stadium bill, they expected a benefit of 450,000 visitors a year. The reality has been nearly double that. The arrival of the Super Bowl on Feb. 11 alone is expected to bring 330,000 fans.

For a city built on gambling and then renewed through constant evolutions, professional sports is the next big thing. As America’s attitude toward gambling changes, the city is finally taking a prominent place in the pro sports landscape.  

For generations, professional sports avoided Las Vegas because of its association with gambling. “Two decades ago, Las Vegas tried to advertise on the Super Bowl, and the NFL wouldn’t allow it,” says Michael Green, professor and chair of the history department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “Times have changed to say the least.” 

Yet the transformation has meant more than money. For many in Las Vegas, it has also brought a new sense of identity. For the city of glittering lights, often criticized as transient, pro sports have brought a new sense of place and stability. Not to mention something to root for together. 

“Usually before the game, if it’s somebody new, you look at each other and go, ‘We’re probably going to hug at some point during the game. Are we OK with that?’” says Sondra Cosgrove, who has season tickets to the Las Vegas Aces, two-time champions of the Women’s National Basketball Association.

In 2014, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver penned an opinion article in The New York Times calling for the legalization and regulation of sports betting. Four years later, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which barred states except Nevada from allowing sports gambling. 

The “sports economy”

In Las Vegas, the transformation of the past few years has been startling. On one December weekend, the National Football League’s Raiders played the Minnesota Vikings at Allegiant Stadium, the National Hockey League’s Vegas Golden Knights played the San Jose Sharks, and the National Basketball Association’s inaugural in-season tournament concluded at T-Mobile Arena. One month earlier, Major League Baseball officials approved the Oakland Athletics’ relocation to Las Vegas. 

For the city, it has been a renaissance. “We’ve had the family-friendly ’90s, the nightclub days in the 2000s, the trade show boom, and now we’re really in the sports economy,” says Michael Naft, a member of the Clark County Board of Commissioners, which governs the Strip.  

Las Vegas’ first Super Bowl will be a christening of the city’s new status as a pro sports destination. 

Historically, about a quarter of the United States population has lacked much interest in visiting Las Vegas, says Steve Hill, CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. 

“That quarter is pretty hard for us to break through ... and what sports has done is caused that number to shrink,” he says.

His data suggests that 60% of fans attending Raiders games during the 2022 season traveled from out of town.   

Yet among those coming to the stadium was also Jerry Armstrong. The season ticket holder makes a regular trip to a wall-length window overlooking the Las Vegas Valley. The vista of shopping centers and hotels unspooling toward the mountain peaks on the horizon is home now, and pro sports are a major reason why.

Mr. Armstrong had moved to Las Vegas from Texas after inheriting a house from his father, but he was considering a return to the Lone Star State. Then state lawmakers announced the stadium deal to woo the Raiders from Oakland, California. “They made the announcement – I stayed,” he says. “I decided I’m going to be here the rest of my life.”

Mr. Armstrong might be an unusual case, but his situation speaks to how pro sports has become a unifying force for civic pride.

Jeff Jensen, a 30-year resident of Las Vegas, says the pro sports scene symbolizes the transition from a “tourist city to really like a regular city.”

If that transition had a date, it might be Oct. 10, 2017. The Vegas Golden Knights hockey team played their inaugural regular-
season game nine days after a man opened fire on concertgoers attending the nearby Route 91 Harvest country music festival. It was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. 

Leading up to the game, the hockey players visited blood drives and delivered groceries to first responders. The community embraced the team, which won that emotional first game and went all the way to the Stanley Cup Final that season.  

“That’s the first thing they wanted to do – they wanted to help us,” says Pammi Blackmon, a member of the VGK Ladies fan group. “And, well, they did.”

That giving spirit has been adopted by fans. The VGK Ladies Facebook group now has more than 10,000 members. Posts range from game quips and VGK-inspired nail design to calls for friendship or support. 

Ms. Blackmon says the bonds forged online or at watch parties have transcended sports fandom.

“We have a surprise squad that every now and then shows up to somebody’s house with goodies,” she says. “It’s usually because they’re going through either some really bad times or they’ve lost a loved one. ... It could be many reasons why.” 

“This is a lot of fun”

The Super Bowl might be Las Vegas’ biggest bow yet on the pro sports stage. But for residents here, sports have already changed the city. It has long been touted as a getaway from reality. Now, residents are finding that same experience. 

Dr. Cosgrove, a history professor at the College of Southern Nevada, never considered herself much of a sports person until she decided to support the Las Vegas Aces. 

They hooked her – and not just because the team has won back-to-back WNBA championships. 

“I’m like, wait, this is a lot of fun,” she says. “For two hours, I don’t have to think about things that make me depressed, and I can feel better when I leave.” 

And that’s a win no matter the final score. ρ