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By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Before sports and music fans began pouring into Allegiant Stadium in July, the only way a person off the street could get inside and check out this palatial indoor sports and entertainment building was through a Raiders’ $59 guided tour or an $80 tour plus a drink and view in a stadium area near the Al Davis memorial torch.
The Raiders and UNLV football games plus international soccer games are bringing fans through the turnstiles, plus concerts performed by popular artists like Garth Brooks and Guns N’ Roses News broke that Allegiant Stadium will also host Metallica Feb. 25 and Billy Joel Feb. 26, while WWE’s Money in the Bank is coming to the stadium July 2.
But while fans — both locals and tourists — have spent the past three months attending events in the 65,000-seat, fix-domed stadium, the Raiders continue to promote their stadium tours that began in April.
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LVSportsBiz.com joined a tour Monday when a very enthusiastic guide names Marnie, who was a Raiders cheerleader for three years in the 1980s.
The tour is a Valentine to the Raiders, treating former owner Raiders owner Al Davis with the reverence of a religious leader. That’s no surprise because the Davis memorial torch is a visual centerpiece in the venue.
But the place where you better not touch anything is the Raiders locker room, where the lockers of quarterback Derek Carr, running back Josh Jacobs and defensive end Maxx Crosby are roped off.
And the big Raiders shield. That’s roped off, too. Don’t mess with that in the locker room.
This office used to be occupied by Jon Gruden, the former coach who had to resign because of his emails that contained racist, homophobic and toxic language.
The Raiders are a fascinating sports organization because the brand power is still strong despite the Raiders’ lack of success in the standings during the past 18 years. The tour pays homage to the Raiders’ stars and characters of the 1970s and 1980s when the Raiders battled the Steelers, Dolphins and Cowboys for NFL titles.
The Champions Club highlights the Raiders’ three Super Bowl titles. It’s part of the luxury suites and clubs that are linked through escalators and stairs.
More than 100 artists have 400 pieces of art, which focus on everything from Las Vegas references to Raiders greats of yesteryear.
If you’re a Raiders fan, especially one of a certain age, you’ll love the tour. It shows off the stadium as an adult playland, which has a grass field that stays green outside the building and is rolled into the venue for Raiders games.
This being a Raiders and Allegiant Stadium tour, there’s no mention that Southern Nevada will raise more than $1 billion in hotel room tax revenues over a 30-year debt repayment period in order to pay off the bonds that financed the public’s $750 million contribution to the construction of the luxurious stadium. Owner Mark Davis calls it the “Death Star.”
Davis’s palatial suite was not accessible during the tour. But MGM Resorts International, a Raiders sponsor, had a suite that we checked out.
It also has a Raiders museum feel to it, with replicas of the Super Bowl trophies and tributes to the offbeat yet talented characters who have donned the silver and black.
Being a former Raiders cheerleader, Marnie has a special place in her heart for the Raiderettes section, which includes a locker for every cheerleader. Here’s the hallway outside that room.
And if you’re lucky enough, your might actually see a harmonic convergence of Al Davis and Elvis Presley in the stadium, too.
All tour dates, times, and stops are subject to frequent changes without notice due to events at Allegiant Stadium. To find out if tours are available for a particular date, please view available tours dates and times by clicking here.