Payoff from Las Vegas Super Bowl estimated at $500M

Bringing the Super Bowl to Las Vegas won’t come cheap, but tourism officials believe the cost will be worth it.

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority President and CEO Steve Hill estimates the cost for the Las Vegas host committee will run between $55 million and $60 million.

But Hill said the payoff to the city will be worth it. He said holding the Super Bowl in Las Vegas will make the city an extra $500 million over what it would typically make during a usually sold-out Super Bowl weekend in the city. In 2019, the Super Bowl brought 310,000 visitors to Las Vegas, resulting in an economic impact of $425 million, according to research firm Applied Analysis.

“It is a huge event for Las Vegas to have it in the city,” Hill said. “That doesn’t even value all the eyes of the sporting world on Las Vegas.”

The massive influx of people expected to descend on Las Vegas for the Super Bowl will likely make it one of the busiest weekends on record for the city, said Brendan Bussmann, director of government affairs for Las Vegas-based Global Market Advisors.

“Super Bowl weekend has always been a large visitor weekend for Las Vegas regardless of where the game has been held. With the positioning of this game in 2024, you will likely see that crowd continue to come as well as those groups that have been in attendance for the actual game,” Bussmann said. “It may end up being a record breaking crowd of Super Bowl attendees to a destination.”

In non-COVID times, hotels in Las Vegas traditionally trend at or near capacity on any given weekend. In February of 2019, weekend occupancy rates were 91.9 percent, according to statistics from the LVCVA. In 2020, they were at 94.8 percent.

Bussmann said that hotels will likely respond as they do for other high-capacity events like CES and New Year’s Eve by opening some additional rooms, and giving a boost to the city’s total room inventory.

Deal a year in the making

Wednesday’s announcement that Las Vegas has officially been awarded the 2024 Super Bowl was a year in the making.

NFL team owners made the decision on the site of Super Bowl LVIII, set to occur Feb. 11, 2024, during their meetings in Dallas.

Hill said the game and the city are a perfect match.

“We are bringing the world’s greatest championship game to the world’s greatest arena,” Hill said. “That combination is unbeatable.”

Shortly after New Orleans opted to host the 2025 Super Bowl instead of the 2024 event, NFL representatives placed a call to Las Vegas tourism officials.

Hill said that initial call led to a year-long collaboration among the tourism agency, the NFL, the Raiders and other officials to lay out how a Super Bowl would work in Southern Nevada.

“The sense all along from that conversation was that we would be able to work this out,” Hill said. “They certainly had an alternative location in mind in the event that Las Vegas wasn’t able to do this and meet their qualifications. But I don’t think they ever seriously thought that that would happen.”

Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft, whose district includes Allegiant Stadium, applauded the announcement.

“This is the exact type of event and economic activity that was envisioned in the early days of Allegiant Stadium,” he said. “I am particularly excited for what this means for our local community: $500 million in total economic impact, thousands of jobs, opportunities for small and minority-owned businesses, and the chance to showcase what we all know is the ‘Greatest Arena On Earth.’”

Strides made in five years

The announcement comes a little over five-and-a-half years after the first meetings with the Raiders regarding possible relocation to Las Vegas. Hill said it’s incredible to see how things have progressed in that time.

“It does kind of feel like the summit,” Hill said. “We went from a conversation from maybe having a stadium, to obviously having one, to hoping we would be able to get a Super Bowl in Las Vegas and now actually making that happen. The stadium and the Raiders have been fabulous for Las Vegas … I don’t know that there’s ever been a move of a professional team that has meant more to the team and more to the city at the same time.”

In building Allegiant Stadium, officials hoped to see it host major events other than Raiders games. Gov. Steve Sisolak, who was involved with the stadium process from its infancy, said the plan is playing out as hoped.

“It (Allegiant Stadium) is an economic engine for our state, without a doubt. It’s driving a lot of people coming here and those people are spending their money and employing our residents,” Sisolak said. “I think it will be on the regular rotation, at least I hope so, for the Super Bowl. Like they have in Dallas and Miami. Hopefully we’ll get it every four or five years.”

Along with the Super Bowl, there will be about a dozen events occurring throughout the city during the week leading up to the game.

“It’s a broad variety,” Hill said. “The fan fest I think is what the Las Vegas community will see the most. … It will be a very active seven or eight days leading up to the Super Bowl itself.”

Added Sisolak: “The Super Bowl is not just a day, the Super Bowl is several weeks of preparation leading up to it. So it’s going to be a great economic boost to the community as well.”

For more on Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Staium in Las vegas, visit lvrj.com/SB58.

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Colton Lochhead contributed to this story.