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The NFL and the city of Las Vegas have been building a relationship over the past few years, which has culminated in Allegiant Stadium playing host to Super Bowl LVIII this Sunday.
It’s a relationship that began because of Mark Davis and the Raiders in 2016. The team’s owner put together a plan to build a state-of-the-art stadium near the Las Vegas Strip and relocate his team from Oakland, California. With the help of the NFL and the state of Nevada, he put together an impressive proposal, with NFL owners voting 31-1 in favor of approving the Raiders’ relocation to the desert.
Davis knew that a Super Bowl coming to the new stadium would ultimately be inevitable.
“I would give Mark Davis a lot of credit right off the top because I think before Mark even got here, he was talking about a Super Bowl,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said at his annual Super Bowl press conference Tuesday.
“He believed this would be a great Super Bowl location, so when he got the relocation approval that was one of the first things he was talking about, ‘When are we going to get a Super Bowl?’ I said, ‘Mark, we’ve got to play a regular season game here first.'”
For years, there was some reluctancy over whether professional sports could work in a city like Las Vegas – considering its reputation with gambling – and concerns if sports could captivate the local community.
Since Allegiant Stadium opened its doors in 2020, the results have exceeded expectations. The stadium has won numerous “Best in Las Vegas” awards, along with being named an USA Today 10Best attraction and the Raiders leading the league in ticket revenue in 2021.
Then in December 2021, Davis’ vision came to fruition with the announcement of Super Bowl LVIII to be held in Allegiant.
“Two and a half years ago, we got a call. They needed to move the Super Bowl from New Orleans because of the change in the NFL’s regular season schedule,” said Steve Hill, CEO and President of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA). “It gave us the opportunity to step up and this is a city that can make things happen fast and we’ve done that.”
