LAS VEGAS — Steve Hill, president of the Las Vegas Tourism Authority (LVCVA), is enthused by the latest star to hit his city.
In the past two years, Vegas has welcomed Taylor Swift and Beyoncé to perform at 65,000-seat Allegiant Stadium, and also hosted the first Formula One race and Super Bowl III. This weekend it’s Lionel Messi’s turn.
World Cup champion Inter Miami will face three-time Liga MX champion Club America on Saturday at Allegiant Stadium.
“Messi is obviously a big name in this sport,” Hill said. “Having him coming is like having the Beatles or Elvis[Presley]coming. He’s a phenomenon. It’s a thrill to have him in town, and we’re a city that’s very excited. . He is the king now.”
The match itself isn’t that important, the only preseason exhibition notable for being Javier Mascherano’s debut as Inter Miami’s head coach. But it is the latest stop on Messi’s roadshow and the first time he has appeared here at club or international level.
Inter Miami hope this visit, which follows games in Honduras, Panama and Peru, will be more successful than their attempts to maximize Messi’s commercial appeal during last winter’s pre-season. He overwhelmed the Saudi fans by making only a substitute appearance, and then caused an international uproar when he missed an exhibition match in Hong Kong.
Allegiant Stadium general manager Andy Gauchev said 40,000 to 45,000 people will be in attendance for Saturday’s game, which won’t reach full capacity, but will be held at a non-competitive venue with ticket prices as low as $67. It will be a high attendance for a match (£55) according to official vendor Ticketmaster.
Club America is the most popular Mexican team in America. Pedro Garza de Angoisia, the club’s director of internationalization and new business, told The Athletic that his team has “more than 15 million fans” in the United States, but the team’s presence in the U.S. US television numbers for matches often exceed MLS and MLS records. Many English Premier League clubs. Las Vegas, where 34.1 percent of the population is Hispanic or Latino, according to government data, also expects to draw Mexican supporters from nearby California and Arizona.
Club America has a strong following in the US (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
But it’s Messi that many people will pay to see, and his arrival is part of a number of high-profile sporting events that have redefined Las Vegas and diversified its economy beyond gambling. Represents the latest.
Ms Hill said: “When I moved here 37 years ago, gambling winnings were the main income for the property. It was, “Hey, let’s get everyone here.” Then let’s hope they lose enough money on the table… to help the city grow. ”
“Gambling remains important to integrated resorts, and gaming wins are a key component of revenue. But most of them aren’t even making half that now.”
In a surprisingly short period of time, Las Vegas has become a sports city, with Messi becoming the city’s newest star.
Las Vegas has added three major league teams in the past decade. The NHL introduced the Golden Knights in 2017 before the NFL’s Raiders relocated from Oakland, while MLB’s Oakland Athletics aim to move into a new ballpark on the iconic Strip by 2028. . In the WNBA, the Las Vegas Aces arrived from San Antonio in 2018. , won back-to-back championships in 2022 and 2023. Martial arts mecca Las Vegas hosted the highest-grossing UFC in history (a reported $22 million) at the Sphere in September, drawing a sold-out crowd of 16,024.
The move may be due to the removal of the stigma from sports betting, which is now legal in some form in 38 states and Washington, D.C., according to the American Gaming Association. As sports betting spread across America, leagues lessened their resistance to Las Vegas’ acceptance. For example, in the early 2000s, when Nevada was the only state offering legal sports betting, cities were even prevented from running tourism ads during the Super Bowl.
While the legal changes at least partially explain why the teams are participating, the city’s own willingness to be among the first to jump on hosting big sports also points to a change in the behavior of people who gamble. The legalization of sports betting means the need to travel to Las Vegas has diminished as sports betting locations have expanded across the country, but the shift to online betting has also had an impact. Jeff Sherman, vice president of risk at Superbook Nevada, told The Athletic that 60 percent of posted bets are placed via the app compared to in-person bets.
As such, Las Vegas cannot realistically rely solely on retail stores to drive its economy. In fact, Hill explains that his city attracts 42 million visitors a year, and about 25 million people visit, but “we’re trying to do something new so they can come and see and do things. “It’s necessary,” he warns.
Steve Hill believes Messi’s star power makes him a perfect fit for Las Vegas (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
He explains: “We are no longer a monopoly in sports betting and gambling, so we must continue to expand our services to continue to attract customers.
“It’s Las Vegas. There’s no other city in the world that can treat 60,000 people like VIPs at the same time. The scale we have takes events even further.”
Don’t expect the rush to stop here. The 2028 diary states that they will advance to the NCAA Final Four, but it seems like it is only a matter of time before an NBA expansion team is born. Las Vegas has hosted numerous basketball events, including the NBA Summer League, the 2023 In-Season Tournament (semifinals and championship game), and the three WNBA All-Star Games since 2019, among others. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said this on The Pat McAfee Show early last year. “Las Vegas is definitely on our expansion list.”
“There are several groups within the city (of Las Vegas) that are very interested in being part of that conversation. And they all agree that it should happen in months, not years. I know what you feel,” Hill said. “However, the NBA has not specified a deadline at this time.”
He said the 2024 Super Bowl represented “the largest economic impact an event has ever had,” bringing in an estimated $1 billion or more in additional revenue than a typical entire weekend.
Harry Reid International Airport tested a record 104,000 passengers in a single day on Monday after the game, while Nevada sportsbooks boosted attendance with Super Bowl wagers. It made a record amount of $185.6 million.
No wonder Las Vegas is looking for a repeat performance, encouraged by encouraging comments from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Hill says: “The Kansas City Chiefs were there, Taylor Swift was there too. We think — five to seven years, we hope to be like that.”
Perhaps one surprise is that Las Vegas won’t form part of FIFA’s larger invasion of North America within the next 18 months. A revamped Club World Cup will be held first, followed by the 2026 Men’s World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Messi and Inter Miami play preseason games across North, Central and South America (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
Allegiant Stadium hosted three games during last summer’s Copa America and is also the venue for this summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup. Hill explains that although the city and the stadium were seriously considering getting involved, FIFA’s hosting requirements were a stumbling block. Allegiant’s field dimensions are smaller than FIFA’s minimum requirements, meaning seats would have to be removed to package the stadium in a World Cup-worthy manner.
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“According to our estimates, in this case the stadium would be out of service for a total of 15 months over a 21-month period,” he says.
So concerts and other live events are important to Las Vegas, so it wasn’t worth the sacrifice. In the coming months alone, AC/DC, Shakira, Post Malone, Coldplay and Kendrick Lamar will be on the scene, as well as WrestleMania and Rugby League, which will host four matches a day, including teams from Australia, New Zealand and Australia. A festival will also be held. England. Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves of the English Super League will play a regular season match in the United States for the first time. Hill said it would be “very attractive” to host European soccer regular-season leagues such as the Premier League and La Liga in Las Vegas, but added that he was not aware of any “serious discussions”.
Gorchev said Las Vegas has similar aspirations to be a “great neighbor” to Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympics and serve as a staging area for fans embarking on road trips and multi-state visits to the World Cup. He said he wanted it.
Las Vegas also hopes to play host to warm-up matches for some of the 48 teams competing in the Men’s World Cup, or to serve as a training base for teams competing in neighboring states, but there is no way the city would be brave enough to position its own team. It might be a country. It was held in Las Vegas during the World Cup given the extracurricular activities on offer. Hill said the issue of risk for athletes continues to come up in organizers’ conversations, especially for Kickoff, which will be headlined by the University of Southern Carolina (USC) and Louisiana State University (LSU) in September 2024. He said it becomes a hot topic when Las Vegas hosts college sports, such as the Classic. .
Las Vegas appears to be in contention to host the Super Bowl again (Michael Owens/Getty Images)
he says: “If you bring an 18, 19, 20-year-old kid here, they’re still not allowed to participate in Las Vegas, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try. There are some concerns there. However, problems can occur in almost any city. The problems in Las Vegas are not unique to our city.
In Las Vegas, there is still hope that MLS might move there someday. More than a dozen organizations have considered bringing teams to Las Vegas since 2007, said an MLS official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The closest one was an ownership group led by Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris, who also own English Premier League team Aston Villa. They went so far as to trademark the name “Las Vegas Villains,” but the $500 million expansion is expected to include a soccer-specific stadium and a retractable roof to protect the players from the rain. Therefore, it appears that deterrence was costly. Summer desert heat.
Many MLS insiders expected Vegas to become the league’s 30th team, but they were soundly defeated by San Diego, which kicks off the 2025 season next month. Bill Foley, owner of the NHL’s Golden Knights and Premier League’s Bournemouth, has also previously considered establishing an MLS team in Las Vegas, although MLS has not actively discussed further expansion.
Hill insists that Las Vegas is “a soccer city.” It is already the home of the United Soccer League’s Las Vegas Lights.
“There are Premier League fans and there are La Liga fans. It’s a wide cross-section,” he added. “What Vegas brings to a Pro League team is a more global perspective.
“As Las Vegas continues to grow, there is strong interest from the community to have an (MLS) team here, but finding the key to open that door is a little more difficult than in other leagues.”
In the meantime, locals and tourists alike can make do with catching a glimpse of Messi this weekend.
(Top photo: Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
