Las Vegas is taking big strides to be the sports capital of the U.S. and will soon be able to offer visitors the chance to watch teams in action across all the country’s major professional sports. Steve Hill, President and CEO of the LVCVA, tells Steve Hartridge how the city is getting ready to hit visitor numbers out of the park…
What brings you to the UK this autumn?
The main purpose is to increase our visitation to Las Vegas from the UK.
On this visit I am focused on Las Vegas being the lead partner and presenting sponsor of the NFL (American Football) games taking place in London over three weekends in October. The NFL is very popular in the UK and the games here sell out quickly, so this is an opportunity to present Las Vegas to a UK audience.
We have the opportunity for activations around the stadium but some of our biggest customers are headquartered in the UK, so we will be hosting them at the games.
Las Vegas is making a serious pitch to become one of the leading U.S. destinations for watching professional sports. Could you outline some of the recent developments and those coming down the line?
Las Vegas has a long history of being a sports city. We have been one of the boxing capitals of the world for a long time. Over the last eight years or so we have brought professional sports teams to the city, such as the Las Vegas Golden Knights ice hockey team, who won the sport’s top prize, the Stanley Cup, in 2023.
In 2020 NFL came to the city when the Raiders moved from Oakland, and we built the technologically advanced Allegiant Stadium for them.
And in 2028 we will bring a major League baseball Team here, the A’s, also from Oakland. They are spending the next three seasons in Sacramento, California, whilst we build a brand-new stadium on the site of the former Tropicana Hotel, an iconic Las Vegas building that was demolished on October 9.
Does Las Vegas have the resident fan base to support so many professional teams?
Las Vegas has matured into a decent sized city, with about 2.4 million people. From a media market standpoint for U.S. professional sports, we are still one of the smallest cities, but what makes Las Vegas different is that we bring in around 330,000 tourists every day and they are all looking for things to do. Our premise around bringing baseball to Las Vegas is that 5,000 of the stadium seats would be filled by tourists and the rest by locals. We feel comfortable that will be easily attainable.
So British visitors will likely be able to obtain tickets for the games?
For sure. If you want to see your favourite team on the road then Las Vegas offers as good an opportunity as any. You can schedule a game around everything else the city offers. Today, if you go to a Raiders match it is a little hard to tell who the home team is because there are visitors in the stadium from many states and several countries. For ice hockey it is a little more difficult to get tickets because they restrict the number of tickets on general sale and have built up a huge loyal hometown fan base and sell out the stadium every game.
As someone who has been a driver of tourism developments and growth in Las Vegas for more than 30 years, did you have any sentimental pangs when the Tropicana was demolished?
Well, reinvention and new growth is what Las Vegas has always done. We paid our own little tribute to the Tropicana when the building came down on October 9. There was great history there and the building played a significant role in the growth of tourism to the city, but as I said, continual reinvention is what Las Vegas does and the new baseball stadium will have the honour of occupying one of the most iconic and historic pieces of land in the city at one of its most important intersections. With an entire glass wall looking out over Las Vegas Boulevard, it is going to be a spectacular place for watching baseball and other events too.
Coming in November is the second running of Formula One’s Grand Prix, on a circuit in the heart of the city. Last year’s inaugural event was spectacular and drew the crowds but also drew some criticism from both city residents and drivers. What have you done to address that this year.
The situation is completely different this time. I mean, last year we had to build the track from scratch. There were five months of construction work that saw five and a half kilometres of road torn up and rebuilt, and then we spent two months setting up the circuit itself. That was very difficult for residents. If we had to do that every year, we probably wouldn’t be doing it at all, but we don’t. The disruption will be much less this year.
It is true that heading into the race last year there was a lot of scepticism from the drivers, which frankly we didn’t think was fair. And then they ran the race – which turned out to be an exciting one on a very competitive circuit. It is a very fast track, and the race saw the second-most overtakes of any on the Formula One circuit last year – and against one of the most spectacular backdrops of any race. (Driver) Max Verstappen, was one of the most outspoken critics beforehand, but then ended up singing ‘Viva Las Vegas’ when he won!
Las Vegas isn’t one of the U.S. host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, but do you expect Las Vegas to benefit in any way from the county being a co-host of what is easily the world’s most watched sporting event?
Yes, I really do. You know, the only reason we are not a World Cup host is that Allegiant Stadium has a roll-in, roll-out ‘ field tray’ and the pitch size just falls short of that which FIFA requires to play international matches on – and there is no way to expand the size of that tray. It stages a number of soccer matches but FIFA has its standards and wasn’t flexible on this. But visitors will come from all over the world to watch the matches and will do other things and visit other places in-between the matches. Las Vegas is a bucket list item and location for many.
UK travellers have long been a key target audience for you – is that still the case post-Covid?
It is still our most important overseas market and, as you say, it has been for a long time. In terms of the UK numbers we had in 2019, we haven’t yet recovered to those levels (about 550,000 British visitors travelled to Las Vegas last year).
And that is why we are focusing more effort, more dollars and more time in the UK now than we ever have previously. Aside from our Lead Partner sponsorship with the NFL for the London Games, we have been a big sponsor at Silverstone (racetrack) and earlier this year forged a new partnership with the Premier League club AFC Bournemouth.
The “Visit Las Vegas” logo is on their training uniforms, and we have in-stadium exposure and matchday activations.
We expect to grow our UK and Irish numbers now that all our flights are back with British Airways, American, Virgin and Norse, and on October 25 Aer Lingus launches a new direct route to Las Vegas for the first time.
Finally, what would you say to our travel trade audience that might have a client who says, “I know Las Vegas and have been before…I don’t need to go back”?
Well, if they haven’t visited in the last few weeks it has changed! Las Vegas is always reinventing itself. There are so many different things to do that there is no way two or three trips can introduce you to everything Las Vegas has to offer. There is always something new and usually it is big and spectacular – such as Sphere, the magnificent new music and entertainment arena that is unlike any other in the world. Currently, you can see The Eagles perform there.
New restaurants and shopping areas open virtually every week, and entertainment rotates on a regular basis – currently there are around 25 residences, which have included Adele, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Pink and Carrie Underwood. And we’ve just announced The Killers will return to their hometown for a 10- night residency at Caesars Palace’s Colosseum next August.
The other thing I would add is that Las Vegas has more hotel rooms than anywhere else in the world and there is a room for every budget.
