Las Vegas’ All-Star Week Moves Into Gear With NFL Pro Bowl Practices In Summerlin, East-West Shrine College Game At Allegiant Stadium Later, NHL On Strip Friday
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The snazzy ballpark usually is normally home base for the Oakland Athletics’ Triple-A ballplayers, but Thursday morning there were NFL all-stars like the Las Vegas Raiders own A.J. Cole and star quarterback/celebrity TV commercial actor Patrick Mahomes hobnobbing with the media and going through some light practice work.
The NFL in Las Vegas is nothing new at this point with the Raiders completing their second season here. So, Las Vegas was back this week doing what it does best: host events.
The NFL Pro Bowl’s players were at Las Vegas Ballpark, sinking their cleats into the NFL’s own turf the league brought to the 10,000-seat ball yard in Summerlin.
Las Vegas’ All-Star week is off and running with the East-West Shrine college all-star game later today at Allegiant Stadium, the NHL skills competition Friday and its All-Star Game at T-Mobile Arena Saturday and the Pro Bowl at Allegiant Stadium Sunday.
Las Vegas is built for events and sports, so the market welcomes the all-star activities.
The ballpark will be home to the NFL skills competition like precision passing, catching passes and running speed.
The NFL’s all-star game is far from an intense game. It was usually in Orlando and featured the better players from the teams that didn’t make the Super Bowl, which is one week after the Pro Bowl.
But this is the first time that Las Vegas is hosting the NFL Pro Bowl. The LVCVA chief, Steve Hill, told LVSportsBiz.com Thursday, “Our current agreement with the NFL is for this year’s Pro Bowl with an NFL option for next year. Beyond that hasn’t been discussed yet.”
It seems with Vegas’ ability to host events, the notion of this market hosting this football all-star game will undoubtedly be considered. Las Vegas hosts the Super Bowl in 2024.
