By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
COVID-19 has claimed another annual las Vegas sports event — no Las Vegas Bowl this month.
It was supposed to be a new era for the ESPN-owner Las Vegas Bowl, traditionally staged in mid-December. The bowl game dropped the Mountain West Conference and arranged a new matchup between a Pac-12 team and an every-other-year rotation between a team from the SEC and the Big Ten.
But the novel coronavirus, which has claimed the lives of 270,000 Americans, stopped all that this month. It was supposed to be a big deal this month because the game would have been staged at new Allegiant Stadium, the $2 billion stadium project built by the Las Vegas Raiders. No fans are currently watching games in person for both Raiders and UNLV football games.
“Unfortunately we will have to wait another year to present the Las Vegas Bowl in its new home,” said John Saccenti, Las Vegas Bowl executive director. “This was a difficult decision but the right one considering that our game was founded nearly three decades ago to help drive tourism to the Entertainment Capital of the World during the month of December. We are looking forward to making our bowl week bigger and better than ever in 2021.”
“The Pac-12 is disappointed for our teams and fans that the Las Vegas Bowl has been forced to cancel this year’s game,” said Larry Scott, Pac-12 Commissioner. “We look forward to next year’s game, which promises to be a fantastic national stage in one of the world’s best football stadiums, to showcase Pac-12 football.”