On Las Vegas Sports Marketing: LVCVA CEO/President Steve Hill On Raiders Stadium Use

By Alan Snel

LVSportsBiz.com

 

The Raiders’ new domed stadium is still more than a year away from opening, but event organizers have already been contacting the Raiders and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (the public tourism agency) about the venue’s availability. LVSportsBiz.com posed questions to Steve Hill, both the LVCVA CEO/president and the public stadium board chairman about the LVCVA’s role in working with the Raiders to draw events to the $1.8 billion stadium project (the stadium itself is $1.35 billion and Southern Nevada is giving $750 million to the Raiders for the NFL team to build the 65,000-seat venue.) Hill is the founder of Silver State Materials Corp, a concrete company. He also was former Gov. Brian Sandoval’s economic development director starting in 2011 before he replaced former LVCVA CEO Rossi Ralenkotter, who left the tourism agency under a cloud of travel money misuse issues in August 2018.

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LVSportsBiz.com: When an event organizer like the NCAA wants to book a sports event at the stadium, will they approach the Raiders first? How will they go about asking for concessions like hotel rooms etc. from the LVCVA as part of the sports event?

Steve Hill:  Event producers can initiate the process of booking an event at the stadium with AEG Facilities or with whomever is their first point of contact. The LVCVA will typically take the lead as the coordinating entity for major events and will direct the event producer to the appropriate additional organizations to address specific needs.

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LVSB: How exactly will the LVCVA fit into the picture of bringing stadium events to the stadium? What events that currently don’t come to Las Vegas likely candidates to be staged at the stadium?

SH: The LVCVA has the responsibility to be the lead on major, city-wide events. The stadium provides a new venue that can be considered a game changer and sets us apart from other destinations. We are now positioned to host the likes of the Super Bowl, Final Four, and college football championships, as well as major soccer friendlies, neutral site college football games, conference championship and major concerts that we were unable to  host in the past due to limited facility capacity. Attracting more events to Southern Nevada, including sporting events, is the next evolution through which to drive tourism.

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LVSB: How many stadium use requests are coming in during a typical month? Have you had discussions with the NCAA about potential football championship games, Finals Fours or early-season college kickoff games?

SH: Inquiries regarding the use of the Las Vegas Stadium are received regularly. We are included in the majority of conversations regarding the numerous events that could be held at the stadium.

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LVSB: It’s the Raiders’ stadium. How do you expect the stadium to be managed (in-house or outside management consultant?

 

 

SH:  This question is appropriate for the Raiders’ Marc Badain or Brandon Doll; However, AEG recently announced that AEG Facilities, a division of the venue and live-entertainment company, will manage the Las Vegas Stadium. AEG’s affiliation with other AEG subsidiaries and relationship with global venues is expected to assist the stadium in booking special events and concerts.  (Indeed, after we asked Hill this questions, the Raiders hired AEG Facilities to operate their stadium.)

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LVSB: Do you expect the sports events currently using Sam Boyd Stadium like rugby and motocross to move to the Raiders stadium?

SH: Yes, we do think that many of the sporting events currently using Sam Boyd Stadium will move to the Las Vegas Stadium.

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