By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Garth Brooks. Conor McGregor. Bruno Mars. COVID-19. Record-breaking 117-degree heat.
Welcome to Saturday night in Las Vegas. On/near the Strip.
When Las Vegas was locked down in April and May of 2020 and the Strip was a quiet and quaint boulevard where even grandpas took their grandkids bicycling down Las Vegas Boulevard, everyone kept saying, Las Vegas was going to come back with a vengeance one day.
Well, that one day is tomorrow.
The event schedule-maker in Las Vegas thought it would be a fun time to create what can only be described as a mad-scientist grand experiment in traffic and controlled chaos — plus throw in a COVID variant, increasing virus cases and earth-baking heat for good measure.
A Garth Brooks concert will be the first full-capacity event at 65,000-seat Allegiant Stadium. MMA Bad Boy Conor McGregor will roll out his floppy-armed pre-fight shtick in a cage match against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 at T-Mobile Arena, which is sold out with 20,000 fans about a mile or so north of the Raiders’ domed stadium. President Donald Trump, a pal of UFC Prez Dana White, is expected to be among the 20,000 arena folks.
Meanwhile, Bruno Mars will be singing his tunes at Park Theater for another 5,000 fans a five-minute stroll from the UFC arena.
And to top off the evening of fine entertainment, let’s add a COVID-19 test positivity rate of 8.2 percent and a temperature forecast to hit a mercury-popping 117.
In a market with a one-trick pony economy, the riches of Saturday’s entertainment after crowds and venues were so quiet for so long are both cause for celebration and caution when you consider a high-profile heavyweight prize fight between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder at T-Mobile Arena on July 24 already appears to be postponed because of COVID cases in the Fury camp.
Both the Garth and UFC events are expected to draw thousands of out-of-town visitors, who will help restore the hotel room tax revenues paying off the bonds that are helping finance the public portion of building the Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium. Those stadium tax revenues from the hotel room fees were so low during COVID that the county had to dip into contingency funds not once but twice during this past pandemic year. to make bond payments.
The Allegiant Stadium Garth Brooks concert is especially newsworthy because it’s the first sellout event of the entire seating capacity of the massive building on the west side of Interstate 15, across from Mandalay Bay. It will serve as a test run for Raiders home games, which are all 65,000-fan sellouts, too. Not a single Raiders fan attended a home game last season in 2020.
Hacienda Avenue, the east-west road that spans the interstate and connects the Strip to the stadium, will be closed to cars so that walkers can safely stroll to the stadium. For Raiders games, team officials believe about one-third of all fans will walk from Las Vegas Boulevard along Hacienda to the stadium.
But with Saturday’s devastating heat that is expected to hit 117 degrees, how many people will make the 20-minute walk from the Strip to the stadium, even if the road is closed to cars?
Saturday is going to memorable day for Las Vegas. Metro Police are urging people bound for the events to be patient and plan ahead. Last Saturday, the stadium hosted the Illenium electronic dance music (EDM) concert with 35,000 fans. After the concert, a Metro police officer working security was shot by a man being taken into custody, but the officer was expected to be OK.
If you’re not involved with the Garth and Bruno concerts or the UFC fight show, you might want to consider staying away from the south end of the Strip.
Then again, if you enjoy traffic, packed venues and thousands and thousands of people, Las Vegas has a special night for you.
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