With So Much Public Money Invested In Birth Of Stadium, So Much At Stake For Las Vegas’s Tourism Industry; BYU Defeats Arizona, 24-16, In Vegas Kickoff Classic Saturday

September 4, 2021September 4, 2021 Alan Snel Brian Sandoval, John Saccenti

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By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com

Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell

I’m back at Allegiant Stadium for today’s BYU vs Arizona neutral site college football game.

Most people think of this venue as the Las Vegas Raiders football stadium, a 65,000-seat entertainment center that can accommodate everything from concerts to international soccer matches.

To me, it’s a vital tourism industry resource that Southern Nevada invested $750 million in public money to help build.

So, more college football games, concerts, soccer matches and WWE spectaculars the merrier, especially events that draw visitors and tourists who will stay overnight in hotel rooms and fatten the hotel room tax revenue coffers.

A local airline, Allegiant, even bought the naming rights to the stadium because this stadium is about tourism dollars. Southern Nevada is raising more than $1 billion in debt service over 30 years for that $750 million that went to help the Raiders build this domed, 65,000-seat stadium.

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This stadium is about tourism infrastructure.

That’s not my opinion.

The fact is this stadium is the byproduct of a former committee created by former Gov. Brian Sandoval in July 2015. He gave the advisory panel an impressive name: the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee.

And the committee came up with this recommendation — Yup, Southern Nevada needs a new stadium. Ol’ Sam Boyd Stadium a dozen miles or so from the Strip will not cut it in the cut-throat world of tourism dollars, hotel room tax revenues and Super Bowl host cities.

Enter the Raiders and a hotel room tax that was approved by the state Legislature in a special session called by Sandoval, who signed the stadium bill into law in 2016. It enabled this bit of infrastructure to be built. Thank you Tom Donoghue for this photo.

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It’s inevitable that a college football national championship game and a Super Bowl will one day find its way to Las Vegas and Allegiant Stadium.

Here’s Las Vegas Bowl/Vegas Kickoff Classic Executive Director John Saccenti on the subject: “If there was ever a city that was made for major events like the CFP National Championship, it’s Las Vegas. As a college football fan and someone who loves Las Vegas I think it’s really a matter of when — and not if — that happens here.”

BYU vs Arizona at today’s Vegas Kickoff Classic may not be Clemson vs Georgia at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.

But it’s a taste of the college football that will be among the events in this building, a 15-minute walk from the Strip along Hacienda Avenue that goes up and over Interstate 15 to the palatial Raiders stadium.

BYU and Las Vegas have turned into quite the inter-marriage. The Cougars have appeared in Las Vegas Bowls in the past and expect more BYU appearances in Las Vegas in the future.

It was all quiet at the Area 41 bar inside Allegiant Stadium at the start of the third quarter tonight. A bored bartender told me, “They’re Mormons. They’re not drinking.”

BYU defeated Arizona, 24-16. The Cougars led the Wildcats, 14-3, at the half. The game expected 55,000 tickets to be distributed and attendance was close to that number at 54,541.

The first half’s somber note was BYU cornerback Keenan Ellis taken off the field.

It was nice to see musicman Jake Wagner, who worked the music at Vegas Golden Knights games at T-Mobile Arena, back in Las Vegas to choose the music for tonight’s game at Allegiant Stadium.

And local radio personality Chet Buchanan, who works game emcee duties at UNLV basketball and football games, was working the crowd during breaks in the action at Allegiant Stadium tonight.

In a car-centric market like Las Vegas, it’s a novelty to see a road closed specifically to allow pedestrians to reach a designated destibation. There they were, mostly The Blue Nation of BYU strolling on the Hacienda bridge that spans I-15 to reach the stadium. These photos come from LVSportsBiz.com photographer J. Tyge O’Donnell.

Allegiant Stadium is ideal for neutral site college football games because there is very little fixed sponsor signage, with the electronic ribbon and big scoreboards serving as platforms for game sponsors. For example, Dollar Loan Center was getting a lot of ribbon publicity around the stadium as a sponsor of the Vegas Kickoff Classic before today’s game.

There were at least 55,000 tickets sold as of Thursday. O’Donnell was on the scene outside the stadium and filed these photos: