How Indy made an impact on Las Vegas for Super Bowl LVIII
LAS VEGAS (WISH) — Las Vegas, the home of Super Bowl LVIII, is a city that’s known for its entertainment and hosting big events.
When the Kansas City Chiefs face the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday in the big game inside the $2 billion Allegiant Stadium, it will mark the first time that Las Vegas will have hosted a Super Bowl.
“Well, this city’s built to host major events, conventions, special events, festivals, etc., so it makes perfect sense that the Super Bowl’s here,” said Sam Joffray, president and chief executive officer of the Super Bowl LVIII Host Committee. “We could probably fit the Super Bowl here three times if there wasn’t other stuff going on. But Super Bowl weekend’s a big weekend here every year and, when we lay the actual Super Bowl on top of that, it’s going to be the biggest weekend of the year if not all time.”
There are plenty of reasons why Las Vegas is home to the Super Bowl this year. It has 2,700 restaurants, over 150,000 hotel rooms and nearly 30 casinos on the Las Vegas Strip alone.
“I think Indianapolis can appreciate this from 2012 when they did such a great job hosting there,” Joffray said in a rainy Vegas on Tuesday. “Enormous community pride. Lots of volunteers. Knocked it out of the park. Ended up with great weather. We can hope we get some of that great good luck this week. We’re pushing the weather out tomorrow, kicking it out of town and getting ready for it. So, yeah, just couldn’t be more excited.”
Imagine how wild the scene will be with all the football fans, the conventions and more. In fact, there’s even a LIV Golf event happening in Las Vegas as well.
“It’s going to be wild,” said Qiant Myers of Raiders Nation Radio. “It’s going to be absolutely wild. I’ve been here trying to cover as much as possible, trying to cover as many of these different events, and it’s almost impossible, right? Just because it’s all over town. They’re spread out. You mentioned LIV Golf. The Super Bowl. Everything is here. All these sports teams are coming here and all these teams want to be here. So, this went from being a party town to being the sports capital of the country right now.”
This winning ticket of hosting the Super Bowl is expected to bring in a whopping $600 million to the local economy.
“The funniest part to me is how much the NFL didn’t want Vegas before,” said Las Vegas’ Tyler Bischoff from ESPN Radio. “And now we’re at Radio Row and there’s a slot machine right there with all the NFL logos on it. That’s great. So, it’s incredible how far that relationship has come. That not only is there a team here, but their biggest event is here, and this is the place everybody brings their conventions and events. I mean, basically we’re a convention for the Super Bowl.”