(Publisher’s Note: Why do we report these record-based Las Vegas stories? People promoting Las Vegas as a destination claim sports events pump billions of dollars into the local economy, yet Las Vegas’ per capita income is in the middle of the pack in the U.S. and national reports continually show Las Vegas and Nevada are at the bottom of quality-of-life ratings that are based on affordable housing, public education, medical care availability, safe roads and public trail systems. Our goal at LVSportsBiz.com is to spark public discussion and action about priorities in Las Vegas.)
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Las Vegas’ publicly-funded tourism agency, the LVCVA, paid for at least 38 people to attend college football’s national championship game in Miami in January and spent at least $196,000 on a trip the government agency said was necessary to prepare for hosting the College Football Playoff (CFP) title game in Las Vegas in three months.
LVCVA travel expense information was contained in public records requested by LVSportsBiz.com nine months ago and received this week. All information reported in this story is attributed to those public records of 292 pages of travel expenses showing costs from Jan. 14 – Jan. 20.
The LVCVA justified spending these public dollars on CFP championship game travel because the Las Vegas Host Committee and LVCVA staffers get an eyewitness look at game-week logistics, stadium operations and transportation services and attend CFP meetings held for host cities.
“Like other organizations that rotate championship events among host cities, the CFP holds a series of meetings with its future host cities, covering stadium operations, security and safety, venue operations and tours, team operations, transportation, and programming,” said Molly Castano, the LVCVA vice president of public relations and communications.
“These sessions give the incoming host committee a firsthand look at game-week logistics and a chance to learn best practices directly from the CFP and the current host city,” she said. “These meetings culminate in the host city handover press conference, held the morning after the game.”
Opponents have a different opinion, comparing these trips to boondoggles and junkets that waste public dollars when Las Vegas ranks low in so many quality-of-life categories from health care and public education to road safety and public transportation.
The LVCVA board has already approved $40 million for Las Vegas to host the 2027 football championship game at Allegiant Stadium Jan. 25.
The LVCVA and its host committee have previously traveled to a CFP championship game — the college football title contest in Atlanta in Jan. 2025.
In May 2025, LVSportsBiz.com published this story on the LVCVA spending more than $70,000 on a trip to Atlanta to watch the 2025 CFP national championship game.
In 2026, LVCVA’s Las Vegas Host Committee/Executive Committee travel party (below) included:
^ Nine Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) staffers headed by CEO Steve Hill.
^ Three Las Vegas Raiders staffers and two other Raiders executives, team President Sandra Douglass Morgan and team Chief Legal Officer Justin Carley who both serve on the College Football Championship Las Vegas host executive committee.
^ LVCVA consultant Jeremy Aguero who also serves on the CFP Las Vegas host executive committee. It should be noted that Aguero says he’s an impartial analyst of sports events’ and teams’ economic impacts while also serving on a host committee that clearly promotes a sports event.
^ Four staffers with sports marketing company Position Sports, which won a $651,600 contract from the LVCVA in August 2025 to work on the 2027 CFP title game and team operations. Position Sports won the contract after the LVCVA had to put the contract out to bid a second time after LVSportsBiz.com uncovered bidding process irregularities in 2025.
^ Four Las Vegas Metro Police staffers.
^ Two Clark County Fire Department staffers.
^ County Commissioner Jim Gibson, who is on the host executive committee and chairs the LVCVA board.
^ Two people who are “Extra Yards for Teachers Liaisons”
^ Former LVCVA Chief Operating Officer/former Chief Sports Officer Brian Yost who is now getting paid by the LVCVA as the executive director of the CFP Las Vegas Host Committee.
^ John Saccenti, Las Vegas Bowl executive director
^ Andy Gorchov, general manager for ASM, the company hired by the Raiders to help manage Allegiant Stadium
^ Rob Dondero, who handles LVCVA’s sports advertisement buys as executive vice president for prominent Las Vegas ad and PR agency R&R Partners, which received a three-year, $309 million no-bid contract from the LVCVA in an LVCVA board vote in May.
^ Mike Newcomb, UNLV executive director of Thomas & Mack Center and member of the Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board
^ It should be noted that UNLV Athletic Director Erick Harper is not on the host committee traveling party list, but records showed the LVCVA paid for travel expenses of $3,542 for Harper.
Records also showed three other LVCVA staffers with expense reports. Harper and these three add another four travelers to the 34 listed in the host committee/executive committee travel party for a total of 38.
With records showing about $200,000 spent by the LVCVA on 38 people in South Florida, that’s more than $5,000 per person on the LVCVA CFP field trip. The average business visitor spending in Las Vegs is about $1,600 per trip — one-third of the money spent on average per person on LVCVA’s Miami CFP trip.
The LVCVA has also staged these types of travel excursions for Super Bowls, too.
LVSportsBiz.com documented the LVCVA’s travel expenses for the Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium in the Los Angeles area of $165,000 in 2022 in preparation for Las Vegas hosting the Super Bowl two years later in 2024.
Here’s a look at the LVCVA expenses for the 2026 CFP championship game trip to Miami:
Hotel rooms
For this LVCVA trip in Jan. 2026, the biggest travel expenses were lodging.
Hotel rooms cost $77,779.92 at the upscale, luxury-boutique Nautilus Sonesta Miami Beach on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach from Jan. 14-20. In other words, the LVCVA and its travel party were not staying at Motel 6. The South Beach hotel rooms started at $349 but most were $379 a night, with state, county and city tax charges of nearly another $50.
The championship game was Jan. 19 matching Indiana and Miami at Hard Rock Stadium about 20 miles inland from the LVCVA’s South Beach hotel.
Game tickets
There were also 2026 CFP championship game tickets for the Las Vegas Host Committee/Executive Committee travel party participants. Tickets were $28,900.
Plus, there were pregame VIP event tickets and those were $2,670.
Airline expenses, including seven business class
Airline costs were a major cost in the LVCVA travel expenditures for the Miami national championship game in January. Jet costs for these 23 non-LVCVA host committee people was $43,592. Seven received business class seats:
LVCVA staff expenses of more than $43,000
Chief Marketing Officer Kate Wik submitted an expense of $19,670.82.
One of the receipts was a $948.82 bill at Taco Taco South Beach for a party of ten. Typically, a restaurant receipt travel record should also show the names of the people in the meal party. There are no names here.
These are other expenses for LVCVA staffers such as Hill, Jennifer Hawkins, Bryce Betts, Abriana Buffolino, Rebecca Lane, Andrew Luft, Spencer Schaff and Will Hunter, who made the Miami trip but no longer works for the LVCVA:
Hunter, who had an annual salary of $220,000 during his past tenure at the LVCVA, also liked Taco Taco for food on LVCVA’s CFP title game research.
Here’s the expense for Luft, LVCVA vice president of brand and integrated marketing:
Bryce Betts, director of digital content, had this expense:
Abriana Buffalino is an LVCVA sports and special events specialist:
Spencer Schaff, LVCVA sports and special events coordinator:
Hawkins, the LVCVA vice president of sports business development making $210,000 a year, had a travel expense of $5,091.
Savannah Orth, LVCVA senior manager of sports and special events services:
Hill, the LLVCVA CEO/president making more than $800,000 annually, had an travel expense of $6,543.
There will be more of these LVCVA field trips to see big sports events.
Las Vegas will host the NFL Super Bowl at Allegiant Stadium in 2029. College basketball’s Final Four is also set for the Raiders’ stadium April 2028. And LVCVA staff has traveled to F1 car races.
PSA
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