By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders has struck a founding partner stadium deal with Southern California’s San Manuel Casino –a multi-year sponsorship deal that will tap into the Raiders’ fan base across the Nevada state line in SoCal.
The Raiders will move into their domed, 65,000-seat Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas in 2020, just a year before San Manuel Casino is opening a major hotel expansion and entertainment center at its base in Highland, California 60 miles east of Los Angeles.
LVSportsBiz.com spoke with San Manuel Band of Mission Indians Chief Executive Officer Loren Gill to get a handle on why the casino wanted to partner with the NFL team.
San Manuel Casino is no stranger to sponsoring big league sports teams in the Los Angeles-Las Vegas areas.
Last season, San Manuel became a sponsor of the Vegas Golden Knights as their logo was listed along the rink boards at T-Mobile Arena, the VGK home venue.
San Manuel is also a sponsor of the two Major League Soccer teams in Los Angeles; the Dodgers with signage at Dodger Stadium; and the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League.
To understand why the Raiders wanted to forge a partnership with San Manuel Casino. LVSportsBiz.com spoke with Raiders team president Marc Badain.
San Manuel Casino has a partnership with the Los Angeles Chargers, but that will end when the casino becomes a founding partner of the new Las Vegas Raiders stadium, which is scheduled to be completed July 31, 2020. It sits on 62 acres on the west side of Interstate 15 across the highway from Mandalay Bay hotel-casino. The stadium construction project is nearing $2 billion, with construction of the venue itself at $1.4 billion.
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