By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
It’s nice to hear NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell tell the masses that Las Vegas is a Super Bowl city.
But here’s a little tip for the commissioner — Las Vegas is already a Super Bowl city.
More than 300,000 football fans typically visit Las Vegas on Super Bowl weekend during the first week in February and the hotel room occupancy rate easily passes 90 percent.
Back in March, the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance cited this statement when talking about the Super Bowl’s economic impact: “Las Vegas also has a history of generating significant economic impacts during Super Bowl weekend – when the Super Bowl event is hosted in another city. For example, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority recently reported the economic impact sourced to visitor spending during the Super Bowl weekend in 2019 is estimated to be $426 million based on 306,000 travelers to the area.
That estimate of Super Bowl-related economic spending in Las Vegas — where there is no actual Super Bowl — is comparable to the economic spending impacts in the cities that actually hosted a Super Bowl. For example, Houston reported an economic impact of $428 million for Super Bowl 51 in 2017 and Minneapolis had an economic impact of $450 million for Super Bowl 52 in 2018.
Keep in mind, a host city has to also spend millions of dollars to have a Super Bowl, so Las Vegas will have to show the NFL the money if the league is going to award a Super Bowl to Sin City for 2025. Las Vegas will be hosting the NFL draft in 2020.
Here’s Goodell walking the Raiders’ stadium construction site, where a $2 billion stadium project is scheduled to be completed by July 31, 2020. The stadium construction budget is $1.4 billion of the $2 billion project.
I have a feeling traffic might be a little busy around the stadium on event days after it opens in 2020, so this will be the LVSportsBiz.com preferred mode of transportation. I hope the Raiders will include bike racks close to the stadium in a secure area.
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