Las Vegas group becomes educated on all things Super Bowl

LOS ANGELES — It sits just outside Radio Row here at Super Bowl LVI. The display includes a coffee bar, books, pamphlets, comfortable couches and large, beautiful pictures of desert landscape.

It’s a way for Arizona to highlight Super Bowl LVII next year in Glendale.

Sort of the way Las Vegas will for the following one.

Yes. It’s just two years away. Sure seems like time will fly.

Southern Nevada will host the Super Bowl in 2024 at Allegiant Stadium and there is a local contingent here this week to familiarize themselves with all that goes into welcoming the world to one’s town.

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority President and CEO Steve Hill and nine or so others arrived Thursday. There’s much to learn and experience.

“We’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at all it takes to put on a Super Bowl,” Hill said. “We’re going to be real focused on making this the greatest event that the NFL has seen and Las Vegas has seen. That’s the standard we want to set and I’m confident we can do it.

“I’m not losing any sleep over it.”

Here’s why: This is what Las Vegas does. This is what it’s used to. Hill’s team will be responsible for support areas like transportation and security and marketing. But hosting the multitude of events a Super Bowl offers is up to those properties used to doing so.

There will also be an appetizer to the main event.

Las Vegas hosts the 2022 NFL draft in April, where hundreds of thousands of people will descend upon the resort corridor. While the draft and Super Bowl are totally different events in some ways, they’re similar in others.

The scale for both is massive.

A typical question Hill has been asked about the game of Super Bowl in 2024: How many private planes should be expected to land at Harry Reid International Airport over a two-week period?

Hill’s response: “A lot.”

“We’re going to have a Super Bowl, the premier sporting event in the world,” said Gov. Steve Sisolak, not part of the traveling party. “Ten years ago, that would have been unfathomable. We always find a way, whether it’s the Pro Bowl or draft or big college football games or hopefully another Stanley Cup Final at T-Mobile Arena.

“We have a pretty elite group that has the ability to organize events of such magnitude.”

Many are here this week being educated on such.

Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.