It’s never too early to start thinking about Super Bowl LVIII — scheduled for Feb. 11, 2024, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, a stadium that by then will be just four years old.
In fact, the venue began promoting the city’s first-ever Super Bowl back in 2021 via its marquee, and Las Vegas already has hosted such other high-profile NFL events as the 2022 NFL Draft, the 2022 Pro Bowl and the significantly altered format of 2023 Pro Bowl Games.
But, according to Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, expectations are high that nothing will be able to top a Super Bowl in Sin City.
“We’re at some level feeding those expectations,” Hill told the Las Vegas Review-Journal one day before Super Bowl LVII kicked off in Phoenix. “I don’t have any questions that we’ll do a great job of hosting the Super Bowl. The challenge we’re going to have is meeting the expectations of our customers and visitors and the expectations that we’re frankly setting for ourselves.”
That’s no doubt one major reason why a contingent of about 50 members of the Las Vegas Super Bowl Committee and its 11 subcommittees spent more than a week in the Phoenix area prior to this year’s Super Bowl (in which the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 38-35, in an instant classic). They met with media partners, NFL representatives and Phoenix officials to, in the words of the Review-Journal, “get an up-close view of what it takes to host the big game.”
“We’re taking advantage of the time to also meet with NFL staff and broadcasters, looking at their different footprints and size sets they have and back-of-house stuff they need throughout the week,” Sam Joffray, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee, told the paper.
He added that another objective of the visit was to attend various Super Bowl Week events to better determine which Las Vegas venues would be the best fit for each one.
“It’s a lot like being a wedding planner,” Joffray said. “The bride knows what she wants, but she might not know what’s the best way to do it. We find out from the event owner or broadcaster or the NFL themselves of what the core requirements are and we present them with options. … You can’t decide to put an event somewhere without having thought it through the host committee to make sure it’s going to work on all levels. The transportation and parking plans tie into it, how the volunteers get to it. There are so many things that come into play. Somebody has to have their eye on all the balls.”
“The Super Bowl is not a one-size-fits-all event,” Joffray added in another interview, this time with Las Vegas ABC-TV affiliate KTNV. “You don’t just pick it up and move it from city to city. Everything has to be tweaked and changed. Especially in Vegas, where we have never hosted one before, there is nothing to copy and paste from. We’re authoring every plan from scratch, every drawing is being generated from scratch. This will become the blueprint for all future Super Bowls.”
Meanwhile, officials at Harry Reid International Airport tweeted that they expected heavy air traffic from Feb. 8-16, as hundreds of thousands of NFL fans who couldn’t wait a year flew into Vegas by the planeload to watch the Super Bowl at local establishments — a sign that next year’s game likely will produce a staggering economic windfall for the city.
Indeed, Super Bowl LVIII could rank among the largest events in the history of large Las Vegas events. According to Jeremy Aguero, principal analyst with locally based financial consultant Applied Analysis and a member of the Las Vegas Super Bowl Executive Committee, the big game could bring $1 billion to the city. That includes an estimated $600 million economic impact from the Super Bowl, plus revenue generated by visitors who will in town to watch the game at different properties. Joffray estimates that up to 450,000 people could be in Vegas during Super Bowl Weekend next year.
“Even without the Super Bowl, it’s already a very busy and lucrative weekend for Las Vegas,” Aguero said. “There’s 65,000 seats in Allegiant Stadium and 150,000 hotel rooms in Las Vegas. Balancing that is going to matter.”
“As the host franchise for Super Bowl LVIII, the Las Vegas Raiders will have an allotment of tickets available — about 5% of Allegiant Stadium’s capacity, a little over 3,000 seats,” the Reno Gazette Journal reports. “It’s unknown if the Raiders will put any of these tickets on sale to the general public, or if they will be allocated to team sponsors, season ticket holders, team employees and others close to the team.”
Those lucky enough to purchase a ticket to the game in 65,000-seat Allegiant Stadium should be prepared to pay significantly more than in previous years, according to Chris Leyden, director of consumer strategy at SeatGeek. “Everything in Vegas always sells really well. It doesn’t matter who’s playing in that game, everyone will want to be there,” Leyden told USA Today. “I think it’s safe to assume that Vegas will set a new high watermark that’ll probably hold for some time.”
That means the pressure’s already on for officials in New Orleans, which will host Super Bowl LIX at the Caesars Superdome on Feb. 9, 2025.
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