By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Jonathan Jossel has nothing against the Raiders, F1 and the Super Bowl coming to Las Vegas, but the CEO of the Plaza hotel-casino in downtown says the “brand of Las Vegas needs to stand on its own and not just be an event-driven town.”
LVSportsBiz.com last week interviewed Jossel, who stressed that he likes the big sports events but that Kansas City Chiefs fans from Missouri and Kansas who attended a recent Las Vegas Raiders-Chiefs game game Oct. 4 need to be lured back to Las Vegas to buy hotel rooms, attend shows and hang at pools for “a Tuesday in August and not just a day in October.”
Jossel summarized his views in this video:
“You go back ten years and this town was booming without having the stadiums and the sports teams and the Sphere. Those are incredible additions and important additions to our community, but it’s important that people know they can still come to Vegas without having having to go to a sports event or an F1 or any of the bigger productions,” Jossel said.
“They can still come and have a great time, an affordable time with value, good value. That’s the message we’re trying to spread in downtown,” he said in an interview at his executive office.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), the publicly-funded tourism agency in Las Vegas, is perceived as a marketing arm for the Strip and it spends hundreds of millions of public dollars on paying sports leagues, event promoters and college organizations to stage their big events. For example, expect Las Vegas to spend more than $60 million in public dollars to bring Super Bowl 63 to Allegiant Stadium in 2029.
In addition, Southern Nevada contributed $825 million dollars in public money to help the Raiders build their stadium and another $380 million to aid the MLB Athletics build their A’s stadium (2028) on the Strip.
Las Vegas sports boosters and pro-sport consultants claim sports events bring in billions of dollars to the Vegas market, but national ratings and reports consistently rank Las Vegas and Nevada near or at the bottom in quality of life categories like public education and health care in Las Vegas.
The Raiders host the Buffalo Bills Sunday. Expect lots of Buffalo fans to visit Las Vegas this weekend. But will they visit Las Vegas during any times the rest of the year?
Jossel would hope so.
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