Las Vegas Bowl, NFR Share Same Saturday This Weekend
ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
For only the second time, the Las Vegas Bowl and the National Finals Rodeo have crossed paths on the December calendar, as the the college bowl game and the rodeo event are intersecting Saturday, said John Saccenti, the bowl game’s executive director.
It’s a scheduling oddity. But it does bring tens of thousands of football and rodeo fans to Las Vegas for the Mitsubishi Motors Las Vegas Bowl matching Fresno State of the Mountain West and the Pac-12’s Arizona State at Sam Boyd Stadium, while another 17,500 people are expected to pack Thomas & Mack Center on the second to last day of the 10-day NFR. Las Vegas Events President Pat Christenson estimated that 60,000 people are in Las Vegas just for the rodeo attending the NFR and watch parties at two dozen sponsor hotels.
Saccenti said the Hard Rock hotel-casino, where Fresno State is staying, is sold out this weekend, while he believed Mandalay Bay hotel-casino, where Arizona State is staying, is close to being sold out. Mandalay hosted the baseball winter meetings this week, and there’s also NFR fans staying there, too.
It will be interesting to see if this year’s hotel occupancy rates for this weekend increase compared to the same weekend in December 2017.
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The Las Vegas Events doles out $14 million, including $10 million in prize money, for the NFR because the visitors come to Las Vegas during a time of the year between Thanksgiving and Christmas when tourists counts are down compared to the rest of the year.
While the NFR helps attract tourists, the two weekends of NFR in December still remain down months. In 2017, the first weekend of the NFR was the 47th ranked weekend out of 52 weeks in terms of hotel occupancy rates in Las Vegas, while the second weekend was the 50th ranked weekend, according to Las Vegas Events.
Mitsubishi Motors will be the title sponsor for next year’s game. But then it remains to be seen if the Las Vegas Bowl will still have the same Mountain West and Pac-12 affiliations for the bowl game when it shifts to the new Raiders stadium in 2020.
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