By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
It’s all about learning the intricate planning details behind putting on an NFL Super Bowl.
That’s how the LVCVA’s chief operating officer explained why Las Vegas’ public tourism agency needed to spend nearly $165,000 in public dollars on attending the Super Bowl in Los Angeles only two and a half months ago to prepare for the Super Bowl here in Las Vegas two years down the road in February 2024.
After LVSportsBiz.com reported the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spent $164,843.25 for three LVCVA executives, five Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee members and Metro special events officers to be in Los Angeles for the Super Bowl, we caught up with LVCVA Chief Operating Officer Brian Yost at an NFL Draft media gathering near the Strip Wednesday to ask about the expenditure of public money.
Yost joined LVCVA CEO Steve Hill and Lisa Motley, LVCVA senior director of sports marketing & special events, and five Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee members in receiving eight free tickets to Super Bowl 56 at SoFi Stadium Feb. 13. The five Super Bowl host committee members were Steve Zanella of MGM Resorts International, Jeremy Aguero of the Las Vegas Raiders; Virginia Valentine, the Nevada Resort Association CEO; Sandra Douglass Morgan, immediate-past Nevada Gaming Control Board chair; and Sam Joffray, executive director of the Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee.
“The level of detailed planning is critical to the guest experience,” Yost told LVSportsBiz.com today.
Yost said the trip was “invaluable” to allow the LVCVA execs, host committee members and Metro’s special events division understand what it takes to activate the various events related to the Super Bowl and also execute the game plan of staging the NFL’s premier event.
Metro officers spoke with their counterparts at Los Angeles County to understand the police side of securing a Super Bowl site, Yost said.
Yost noted the LVCVA board authorized the public tourism agency to spend as much as $40 million on putting on Super Bowl 58 at Allegiant Stadium, but that’s only after the host committee raises its committed share of $20 million.
Even though Aguero, who is the Raiders chief operations and analytics officer, works for an NFL team, Yost said it was appropriate that the LVCVA cover his ticket and expenses for the Super Bowl because he’s on the Las Vegas host committee’s executive committee. The other four Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee members are also executive committee members.
Here’s a look at the expense document for those eight tickets. Four Super Bowl tickets cost $16,800, or an average of $4,200 each. Four other Super Bowl tickets cost $8,800, or $2,200 each. The total just for the tickets were $25,600.
There were also travel, hotel, food and parking costs that brought the entire Super Bowl bill to more than $164,000.
Next year the Super Bowl will be in Arizona and Yost said it’s too early to discuss the LVCVA’s presence there in 2023.
Here were some of the typical expense reports from the LVCVA’s Super Bowl field trip from February.
The NFL is back in Las Vegas for the Draft event Thursday-Saturday after the league held its Pro Bowl all-star game at Allegiant Stadium in February.
The players will be announced in a temporary theater structure behind the High Roller observation wheel, while they will walk a red/pink carpet over at the Bellagio Fountains on the west side of the Strip. Flamingo Road at the Strip will be closed from late Thursday to May 1.
PSA