EDITORIAL: Las Vegas gets the last laugh with 2024 Super Bowl

It was just short of 19 years ago that the NFL banned Las Vegas from advertising during the Super Bowl. My, how times have changed.

On Monday, the Review-Journal’s Vincent Bonsignore broke the news that Allegiant Stadium near the Strip will be the site of the 2024 Super Bowl — Super Bowl LVIII, appropriately. On Wednesday, the NFL confirmed it. The move will cost the Las Vegas host committee up to $60 million, but state and local officials heralded the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

“It is a huge event for Las Vegas to have it in the city,” said Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Mr. Hill estimated that hosting the event will pump an additional $500 million into the local economy compared with a traditional Super Bowl weekend.

The announcement, more than a year in the making, represents another milestone marking the evolution of Southern Nevada and symbolizes the rapidly changing public and institutional attitudes toward sports betting.

Less than two decades ago in 2003, the NFL refused to accept Super Bowl ads from the convention authority intended to promote Las Vegas. The league proclaimed that the TV spots ran counter to its policy prohibiting gambling-related advertising even though they featured no reference to games of chance. The ban remained in place until 2010.

Five years later, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo planned to host a July fantasy football convention at The Venetian on the Strip with a handful of other NFL stars. Once again, however, the league hopped upon its high horse and pulled the plug on the event, citing a rule against players taking part in casino promotions.

And now here we are.

The league’s path to enlightenment has been rapid. Two years after nixing the Romo event, with the push toward destigmatizing sports betting gaining momentum, the NFL approved the relocation of the Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas for the 2020 season. From that point on, it was only a matter of time before the Entertainment Capital of the World played host to one of the globe’s biggest, most-watched athletic events just a stone’s throw from those once-dreaded casinos.

“I think that points to a level of confidence from the owners in Las Vegas as a great destination,” Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s executive VP for club businesses and league events, told the Review-Journal. “A place where fans and partners want to congregate and just a great stage for some of our biggest assets.”

So save the date: Feb. 11, 2024. And rest assured this won’t be the only Las Vegas Super Bowl. You can bet on it.