The D Vas Vegas and Circa owner Derek Stevens
Sports Marketing 

Talk About Marketing Gold: Downtown Las Vegas Hotel Owner Derek Stevens Gives Away 2,000 Free Flights To Las Vegas To Kick-Start Pandemic Economy

Alan Snel ,

By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com

Downtown hotel-casino owner and prominent local sports sponsor Derek Stevens might just go down in Las Vegas marketing lore Wednesday when he launched his own personal economic stimulus package for Las Vegas by giving away 1,000 free flights to Sin City from more than 20 major U.S. cities.

By the end of the day, the national interest in Stevens’ one-man economic stimulus deal ballooned the number of free flights from 1,000 to 2,000.

Stevens, who owns The D Las Vegas and Golden Gate hotel-casinos in downtown Las Vegas and is building the Circa hotel-casino only blocks from his two hotel properties, is a big sports fan from Detroit who is a downtown sponsor of the Vegas Golden Knights. Stevens is already using his Circa sports betting brand to cut a 15-year sports betting deal with  Century Casinos’ Colorado locations.

Stevens went big with this video published by Gaming Today this morning: “It’s on us. Las Vegas needs you. Our community needs you.”

Las Vegas’ hotel-casinos are expected to re-open starting June 4 under Gov. Steve Sisolak’s phase two plan.

“As we begin to reopen our doors across the city, we are proud to help reinvigorate travel to Las Vegas while supporting airlines in America impacted by the COVID-19 crisis,” Stevens said. “We can’t wait to safely bring visitors to the city and remind them why we’ve earned the title of ‘Entertainment Capital of the World.’ And while we’d love for visitors to stop by Downtown Las Vegas, we primarily want to get people back to Las Vegas to experience the attractions and amenities that make it one of the greatest places on Earth.”

Participating airlines include Summerlin-based Allegiant, Frontier Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines and Sun Country Airlines.

Stevens’ “Keep America Flying” promotion drew massive media attention today and LVSportsBiz.com interviewed Stevens live at 6:15 p.m. about the marketing plan:

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Alan Snel

Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.

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