The Las Vegas Sports Experience: How Sin City Became Sports City
There are obviously plenty of reasons to choose Las Vegas as a vacation destination, and they certainly don’t always have to be related to gambling in the vast casinos. The city’s nightclubs, restaurants and shows are among the best in the world, and a maturing Vegas economy now also has a wonderful, but underrated arts scene.
Up until recently, visiting Vegas for sports wasn’t really a big attraction. Sportsbooks, yes, but high-level sports, no. There were some exceptions, such as college-level basketball tournaments and, of course, huge boxing and MMA events, but Vegas was never a destination for professional sports fandom in the same manner as some of the larger US cities.
Major sports teams have rushed to Las Vegas
That has changed. The city has been the beneficiary of both league expansions and the propensity of US sports teams to decide they want to move to a new location. But the bottom line is this: Ten years ago, Vegas had no (what we term) major sports teams. Today it has three. They are the Las Vegas Aces (WNBA), Las Vegas Raiders (NFL) and the Vegas Golden Knights (NHL).
It's a big deal, both in terms of serving the city’s growing population and adding an extra incentive for tourists to visit. It’s also a sign of diversifying the tourist and entertainment economy, coming at a time when casino online platforms are getting more traction due to legislation in other states. Of course, you can also say that it helps the Vegas casino sector, which will benefit from having tens of thousands of fans coming to the city for football, basketball, and hockey games.
The interesting thing to note is that Vegas is not stopping with just three teams. The NBA will soon be expanding the number of teams in the league, and Vegas is almost certain to receive one of the new franchises. That could come about within a couple of years. A Major League Baseball team is also on the way from Oakland, as the Athletics look to move to new surroundings. There are a few minor details to get that one over the line, but it should also be resolved within a couple of years.
Vegas is seen as an exciting prospect for sports teams
So why Vegas? Well, it basically makes a lot of sense for sports teams, given the massive entertainment economy of the city. Many sports teams also see the city as an exciting up-and-coming destination, one with huge growth opportunities. It’s basically a bet on the potential of Las Vegas as it matures.
What’s interesting, too, is that Vegas will have the kind of sports profile usually reserved for the megacities like LA, New York and Chicago, as well as a few historic cities like Boston. The point is that it is getting a bigger sports profile than what would usually be offered to the 24th-largest city by population in the United States.
In the end, this will be a real feather in Vegas’s entertainment cap. Sports leagues like the NFL and NBA are becoming hugely popular worldwide, and you can be certain that many international tourists will be looking at Vegas as a destination for a chance to see the Raiders in action in the NFL. When you look at it all, there are going to be five more reasons – NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB, NHL – to visit the entertainment capital of the world in the coming years.
