
Las Vegas Shines During Super Bowl
Clip: Season 6 Episode 32 | 11m 12sVideo has Closed Captions
LVSportsBiz.com’s Alan Snel joins us to discuss the wide array of impacts the Super Bowl
LVSportsBiz.com’s Alan Snel joins us to discuss the wide array of impacts the Super Bowl had on first-time host city Las Vegas.
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Nevada Week is a local public television program presented by Vegas PBS

Las Vegas Shines During Super Bowl
Clip: Season 6 Episode 32 | 11m 12sVideo has Closed Captions
LVSportsBiz.com’s Alan Snel joins us to discuss the wide array of impacts the Super Bowl had on first-time host city Las Vegas.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipAs for the date of the next Super Bowl in Las Vegas, that's already being debated following mostly positive reaction to Las Vegas' very first Super Bowl in which the Kansas City Chiefs repeated as Super Bowl champions, beating the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime.
I spoke with fans and players about their experience.
What have you thought of the first ever Super Bowl in Las Vegas so far?
(a fan) Awesome.
Awesome.
And we should do this again.
(a fan) It's amazing.
And everybody has been so nice, really, including yourself.
[laughter] (a fan) We went to Miami and then Arizona with the Chiefs and then now here in Vegas.
Vegas is pretty cool because it's all lit up, so it's kind of like a party the whole time.
Instead of trying to find the parties, they're all here.
And you can see all the concerts, and you can just pick what entertainment you want and what buffet you want each night.
(a fan) I am feeling the energy here, and we're just surrounded, surrounded by the fellow faithfuls.
(a fan) There's an incredible vibrancy about this city.
It is alive.
The minute I touched down, like you could tell you were hosting the big game.
Everyone was enthusiastic.
It doesn't matter who you're rooting for.
Go football!
There were fans, and it was just great energy all the way around.
(a fan) In my opinion, there's everything here.
So there's probably more people watching the game outside than inside.
You've got every facility imaginable, hotels, bars, restaurants.
I mean, this is the most incredible city, I think, in America that you could do a Super Bowl in.
-So, plenty of positivity from fans about Las Vegas as the Super Bowl host city, but we also got the perspective of a distinguished member of the media, longtime ESPN Broadcaster Sal Paolantonio.
Logistically, convenience-wise, how has it been for you as a broadcaster, and was it necessary to have the players out at Lake Las Vegas?
(Sal Paolantonio) Okay.
Well, the first thing is convenience-wise, it's been very good.
It's been super crowded on the Strip, but the taxi cab drivers have been friendly, accommodating.
Uber drivers have been great.
And I really can't say enough about the service industry.
The people here have been terrific to us.
And the answer to your question is yes.
Staying out there was terrific for those players and coaches, because Saturday night was really crowded and crazy here.
And I think it was important for them to be apart from that to get away from it.
And their families were out there, so it was good.
I mean, I've stayed at Super Bowl, some bad cities.
This has been an A+.
-As you heard Sal Paolantonio mention, the players from the Chiefs and 49ers all stayed out at Lake Las Vegas during the week.
Here's what they had to say about Las Vegas as a Super Bowl host city.
(Trey Smith) Unbelievable!
Las Vegas is phenomenal.
From the stores to the city to the ambiance, you know, they got us really far away at Lake Las Vegas, but you know, we still didn't mind the drive.
But anytime you go to Vegas-- I'm not a big gambler at all, so I lose out on probably about half the experience.
But it's a beautiful city, it's a great city, and it's a fun place.
(Justin Reid) Man, there's no place like Vegas, man.
Just an amazing city.
They welcomed us with open arms, man.
And you know it's Arrowhead West for us out here.
So we were very comfortable with this stadium, and we loved that the city welcomed us the way they did.
We can't wait to see what the rest of Vegas has to offer tonight.
(Isiah Pacheco) Las Vegas was fun, exciting.
We came here for one goal.
Now it's time to party.
[laughter] -We did speak with one journalist in that piece, but let's hear from another one now.
He is a local sports business reporter.
Alan Snel, also the Publisher of LVSportsBiz.com, thank you for joining Nevada Week.
(Alan Snel) Hey, it's great to be here, Amber.
-So first off, your overall thoughts of Las Vegas' very first Super Bowl?
How many have you covered?
-I covered them in Tampa and Miami and the last one in Phoenix before Las Vegas.
-How did Las Vegas compare?
-Well, I gotta say, this was an ideal match.
I mean, Las Vegas is a pro at over-the-top entertainment.
The National Football League puts on its premiere event, the Super Bowl, in a way that's over the top as well.
And it was really a perfect marriage, I thought.
-The only complaint I think I heard was traffic.
-Yeah.
That's Las Vegas.
I mean, Las Vegas has transportation issues.
And to that point, I thought it was a funny little anecdote on the Friday night before the game, Kevin Frazier from the Entertainment Tonight TV show was part of the CBS show about the Super Bowl commercials.
And they did a live, kind of a feed from Kevin right in front of the Bellagio.
And there's Kevin Frazier.
His first words out of his mouth, "It is gridlock city tonight."
And I thought it was funny that here's a guy, you know, adding some humor to the commercial show, giving like a live report about all the gridlock that was in front, up and down the Strip.
-There certainly was.
When might Las Vegas get to host its second Super Bowl?
-So that's a good question.
People here-- this was the first for Las Vegas, and people are so enthusiastic.
I think people are still kind of nursing, kind of like an emotional hangover from the high and the gleefulness of the weekend and the week leading up.
-I see it on your face.
-Yeah, absolutely.
I needed a couple of days, like Monday, Tuesday, just to recharge my batteries.
We worked literally eight straight days, Sunday to Sunday.
It was a busy week.
And you have other markets that are really good at hosting it.
Miami, New Orleans which will host it next year, you have Houston, and then you have some of the western venues in Phoenix, Los Angeles will actually be-- SoFi Stadium will be hosting it in two years, too, in 2027, I believe, and the 49ers' stadium.
So you have other places.
My guess is that the Super Bowl will come back to here in maybe seven to eight years.
But Las Vegas will definitely be part of the rotation for sure.
And we heard it right from the horse's mouth, you know, the Commissioner.
Roger Goodell said, Hey, we'll be back.
-Why seven to eight years?
I mean, we know that 2025, 2026, 2027 are already accounted for.
-Correct.
-But why not 2028?
-I think you have other really great hosts.
Tampa does a good job.
I think Miami will be in the picture.
And also this is kind of a wild card.
Keep in mind that there's two NFL cities, Nashville and Buffalo, that are building new stadiums with public money.
Traditionally and typically, the NFL will reward a market that coughs up the free government money to help build a NFL football stadium.
They're usually rewarded with a Super Bowl.
-Now, about Vegas' opportunity to host another Super Bowl, there's something I want to run by you from the news outlet Front Office Sports.
This expert reads, quote, For billion-dollar casinos, the Super Bowl attracts mostly the wrong kind of clientele.
They want to attract wealthy gambling "whales" from around the world looking to spend millions at the betting table--not Joe and Jane Chiefs fan from Kansas City and San Francisco.
-Right.
I saw that.
And to me, those words are almost kind of relatable to the Formula 1 event.
I mean, I think Formula 1 wanted to actually attract those kind of, quote/unquote, whales.
I will say that the average fan who came to Las Vegas probably spent more money.
Maybe they were not the whales, but I think they spent more money than the typical tourist who came here to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl in previous years.
Keep in mind, and this is why it's hard to figure out the economic impact numbers, there's already 300,000 people coming to Las Vegas for Super Bowl weekend when we're not even hosting the game.
-Right.
-So it's hard to figure out that incremental extra revenue, because people are being displaced.
But I will say that, you know, the average fan is spending more, if only for any other reason, because the hotel rates are so much higher too.
I mean-- and also, it's, keep in mind, Las Vegas, even though sometimes we want to think that Las Vegas is kind of an affordable place to kind of do business, it really is not.
It's kind of expensive to have events on the Strip.
-From the betting perspective, the state did set a new record for handle in terms of sports betting, $185 million wagered on the Super Bowl this year in the state.
About the economic impact, will we ever know a true number?
-It's very hard.
And the reason is because the criteria is different.
We don't even know how many people were actually here during the weekend.
We saw the initial number of 330,000.
Then we saw another number 450,000.
And then how many people are being displaced from previous years?
And how much per capita spending can you assign per head of all those numbers?
It's easy, I think, to poke holes in some of these big gargantuan economic numbers.
So LVSportsBiz, we've been really careful about reporting what numbers.
We've tried to be responsible in terms of looking at both ends of the spectrum.
You had a person who's pretty much the known guy here in the Las Vegas market, Jeremy Aguero of Applied Analysis, projecting $800 million impact.
And then you have all the academic economists who just tear their hair out when they see these big numbers.
And they, their pat line is that they like to move the decimal point over one number.
In essence, saying it's 10% of that number.
I like to think it's probably somewhere in the middle.
And we will have to wait to see, you know, what the numbers come in, in terms of the visitorship and also the per capita spending.
We'll see how much money were spent at the hotels.
And also, a couple of interesting stats to look out for, we'll look at the sales tax revenues in Clark County for this particular month, and you can compare that number to February of 2023.
And also the room tax revenues, which will be interesting.
I expect to see a room tax revenue spike, because the bills for the hotel rooms were more.
And that means there are probably more tax, hotel tax revenues collected for this month because of the Super Bowl weekend.
-Alan, we've run out of time.
I want to make sure our viewers go to your website and read an article you put out last week about the workers at Allegiant Stadium who are attempting to unionize.
I think the headline read something like, The People that Pour Your $13 Beer are Making $13 an Hour.
-Right.
I thought this was the most underreported, underrated story of the whole week.
-So we definitely got to check it out.
Thank you, Alan.
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