By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
My sanctuary is a seat on two wheels.
And it’s mobile.
I celebrated Rosh Hashanah from my rugged steel-framed, single-speed, fat-tired Surly Pugsley bicycle Saturday morning, pedaling from Summerlin elevation 2,990 feet to downtown Las Vegas elevation 2,001 feet.
Then I biked Las Vegas Boulevard to the Strip, taking advantage of my bike’s massive tires to easily navigate silent construction areas between orange cones.
The Strip was easy to bike. Occupancy rate of the 150,259 hotel rooms in Las Vegas was 42.5 percent in July, down from 91.1 percent in July 2019 a year ago. So traffic was light on the Strip at 9 a.m. on a Saturday in mid-September.
I was also gloomy over the death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the amazing Notorious RBG who rendered legal opinions from the land’s highest court that sided with equality and justice. She was a mountain of a woman and her loss is America’s loss. This bike ride was in her memory.
It’s also a Jewish New Year. And if there was ever a time for a re-boot of a year today is as good as any.
And once on the Strip, I easily pedaled over to a quiet T-Mobile Arena where the Vegas Golden Knights are tenants to Allegiant Stadium, which is where the new Las Vegas Raiders on Monday will play their inaugural Las Vegas game at the glimmering, black-veneered dome stadium that Southern Nevada contributed $750 million in public money to build.
The field is retractable. A tray of natural grass sits ready for Monday Night Football’s Raiders vs New Orleans Saints game. When the UNLV football team plays, a tray will carry artificial turf into the massive 65,000-seat stadium.
The Raiders have conducted two practices in this stadium — which is two practices more than what the Saints have seen of the football field. Raiders coach Jon Gruden addressed Saturday.
“Well we’ve been there twice. It’s not like it’s the first time we have seen it,” Gruden said.
“We know what a great place it is. I think we understand the responsibility of playing well here. I’m not going to be real deep and overly philosophical,” Gruden said. “We got to play a hell of a football team coming in here, that’s got to be where our focus is, the Saints.”
A story by the Reno Gazette Journal ran a story showing the number of COVID-19 coronavirus cases during a 30-day period in August in Southern Nevada, including a chart that showed the number of cases by hotel and even Allegiant Stadium. Allegiant Stadium had 38 COVID-19 cases — far less than the Cosmopolitan (304) and Bellagio (153).
The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds are scheduled to conduct a flyover at Allegiant Stadium during the national anthem when the Raiders host the Saints Monday. “The Raiders’ decades long support of our military and those that serve our nation continues, as we have partnered with Nellis Air Force Base to welcome the hometown Thunderbirds to fly over Allegiant Stadium prior to our first home game in Las Vegas,” Raiders President Marc Badain said.
The Thunderbirds’ flyover prior to the first-ever NFL regular season game in Las Vegas will feature six F-16 Fighting Falcons.
They go faster my Pusgley single-speeder, which I pedaled west from the stadium back to Summerlin. The brake pads needed a replacement, so Jason at Las Vegas Cyclery did a a great job as I took a pit stop off the 215 Beltway bike trail at Town Center Drive.
The bicycle ride had linked a New Year celebration with a trek down the Strip to a visit to the Raiders’ $1.976 billion stadium project.