In half a decade, Nevada has racked up nearly all the infinity stones of professional sports: once the Las Vegas A’s stadium opens for the season, the state will be home to both minor and major league baseball, the NFL, NHL, and WNBA.
How did this rapid growth happen, and what does it mean for Nevada locals and calls to diversify the state’s economy?
Culture of Hospitality Excellence
“You go to any other city, and they’ll do a good job with the game, but it’s often a real effort to get there, and a greater effort to leave,” Steve Hill, president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said. “And all you’ve done on that trip? Go to a game.”
In contrast, Las Vegas sits atop a culture of entertainment excellence. Whether a fan sees a show on the Strip or a sporting event, their experiences are held to the same standard.
“The experience is so elevated compared to other cities,” he said. “We have the scale and skill to treat all 20,000 people at the T-Mobile Arena, or all 60,000 at Allegiant Stadium, like a VIP simultaneously. No other city in the world can do that.”
The VIP experience includes everything from lodging to parking. “For a lot of the major stadiums, you drive miles away to stay at a two-and-a-half-star hotel hoping a fast-food restaurant will be open late,” Hill said. “In Vegas, we’ve got world-class hotels down the street. You can walk to restaurants on people’s bucket lists.”
Sandra Douglass Morgan, president of the Las Vegas Raiders, said she’s heard this sentiment directly from fans.
“Fans who went to games in Oakland, they notice the difference,” she said. “We know they’re going to be on the Strip or downtown and get used to a level of hospitality. We didn’t want that to dip at the stadium – everything we do is premium.”
It’s not just Allegiant and T-Mobile that offer an elevated experience.
“We’re looking forward to opening day for the Las Vegas A’s stadium,” Hill said, “It’s going to be the easiest ballpark in the world to get into, and fans will notice how close the game feels.”
Building on the ground that used to house the Tropicana Hotel, the A’s stadium is set to open in 2028.
“The stadium and the team, they both had to be Vegas-worthy,” Hill said. “We’re going to meet those expectations.”
Entertainment excellence is also expected in northern Nevada.
“Our community demands high-quality leisure and hospitality,” said Eric Edelstein, president of the Reno Aces. “When Reno’s hotel rooms are full, 20,000 people in our market are looking for something fun to do.”
Nevada’s Sports History
Despite the current buzz, the sports industry in Nevada isn’t new.
“Sometimes we talk about the growth of sports like hockey was first invented in 2017 when the Knights hit the ice,” Hill said. “We have a history of great sporting events in the state.”
The Reno Aces moved to Nevada in 2009. “Minor league baseball has been here for a long time,” said Edelstein. “Our teams go back forever, and there’s been an unending appetite for live sports. Watching more teams come to the state has only been exciting for us.”
In southern Nevada, NASCAR and the UFC are big drivers of tourism. Still, when it came to non-league athletics, nothing compared to the National Finals Rodeo.
“The NFR was and is transformational in Nevada,” Hill said. The NFR is held at the Thomas and Mack on UNLV’s campus in December. NFR also brings smaller rodeos along – various hotels across the valley host their own events simultaneously.
“Before we got NFR, December was the slowest month for Vegas tourism,” Hill said. Now, it’s the highest gambling month of the year.
“We signed an extension to keep the rodeo here through 2035,” Hill said. “And we plan to sign another – we don’t see it going anywhere.”
While NFR fans are big spenders, Hill said Vegas’ economy unilaterally benefits from sports tourism.
“Sports visitors spend more on average than other types of tourists,” Hill said. “Sports fans are often also gamblers – they’re paying more attention to games. That’s a big driver in our economy.”
Hill said most sports gambling apps include Las Vegas as an award destination, driving additional sports-related traffic to the city.
“One of the prizes is often a trip to Las Vegas or some sort of experience here,” he said. “We’re the pinnacle of those loyalty programs.”
That status required no pitch from the LVCVA. “The gambling apps chose us,” Hill said. “Virtually every property here has that type of affiliation.”
A Sports Economy
As the former chair of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, Douglass Morgan said she’s seen the economic shift to sports in both roles.
“We’re clearly the gaming capital of the world, and I don’t think that will change,” she said. “But now, we’re seeing this sports economy develop, where people are flying into town for a game and then gamble while they’re here.”
This movement isn’t isolated to Las Vegas. “The industry is evolving,” Edelstein said of Reno’s sports economy. “It used to be primarily friends and family that would pick up and go to a game. Now, it’s an experience for the business community, too: the luxury spaces, the clubs.”
Edelstein said it’s a “chameleon” process. “We have a suite with expensive wine and a catered meal at the same event where a young family sits with a blanket on the grass,” he said. “The industry demands these good, better, and best options.”
Adding sports to the hospitality sector expanded the economy in a way that mirrors the “diversification” some experts have recommended for Nevada, Hill said.
“There’s some debate about the semantics,” he said. “The impact either way is still significant.”
After selling out their third consecutive season, Nikki Fargas, president of the Las Vegas Aces, has seen the team’s economic impact as a local.
“We get repetitive traffic,” Fargas said. “Consistency is important – we round out southern Nevada’s year of economic activity – we play in the summer, then the Raiders take the fall, and then VGK hits the ice.”
Marc Badain, president of the Las Vegas A’s, said the MLB team is set to bring in over two million new visitors in the summers.
“We anticipate the weekday games to be full,” he said. “That’s thousands and thousands of people in what is historically Vegas’ slowest months.”
Other sporting events, like UNLV games, mean Vegas has year-round live sports entertainment.
“Professional sports contribute to the state’s economy and give Vegas a platform for businesses to grow intentionally,” Fargas said. “We benefit the entire ecosystem.”
Nevada’s Communities
The same is true in northern Nevada: 80 percent of the Reno Ace’s fanbase is local.
“We have fans in northern California and around the country, which is great,” he said. “The commitment we have speaks to how strong our community is: we’re the smallest market in triple-A baseball, but we punch above our weight when it comes to our fanbase.”
Douglass Morgan said the Raiders have season ticket members in all 50 states. A third of season ticket holders are locals, with the rest traveling into southern Nevada.
“I’ve been to a lot of places, but nowhere else rallies behind the teams like Vegas,” Fargas said.
The Ace’s winning streaks, combined with Vegas’ reputation, are why Fargas was able to recruit such high-performing talent.
“People want to live here,” Fargas said. “It’s not a tough ask to have people come from the east and the south, all over.”
The biggest draw to Vegas for Fargas was a sense of belonging. “Our league represents an underserved community,” she said. “We had to build a fan base as a league. We had to grow our game. In Nevada, we’ve always been included and supported. At this point, we’re just trying to reciprocate.”
Adding another indoor arena to the Las Vegas skyline isn’t just good for sports fans. While about half of Allegiant’s bookings are for sporting events, the rest are for concerts.
“I can’t express how important these venues are,” Hill said. “With Allegiant, we can host the Raiders, WrestleMania, and the Cannella Crawford fight – and that’s massive. But now Taylor Swift can come to Vegas. Beyoncé, BTS, Coldplay, too.”
Douglass Morgan said that nearly seventy percent of Allegiant’s visitors were in Vegas because of the stadium, whether for a game or live music.
That triggered a shift in perspective. “Eyes were opened to what Vegas can do: we accommodate on that scale, for that level of show,” Hill said. “We’ve broadened our tourism base with these venues.”
The Las Vegas A’s ballpark is also planned to be multipurpose, with a district built around the stadium that will also support local businesses.
“Other sporting events, concerts, private events, award shows, anything can happen,” Badain said. “We’re thinking about what will already be in Nevada, and further, what new IP (intellectual property) we can create together to drive new visitors. It’s all possible with the ballpark.”
Job Creation
No matter what event the venue is hosting, it must be staffed – that means hundreds of new jobs for Vegas locals.
“Think about the number of arenas we have now, on top of our stadium,” Hill said. “On any given day, 500 people are working food, merch, security, parking, and maintenance. These are all new jobs.”
But the move to professional sports added more than service jobs for Nevada.
“Over the last two seasons, we created an internship program for students,” Douglass Morgan said. “People think of the Raiders as a football team, but we’re a business too – data and analytics, marketing, finance, HR, we have all of this.”
This means more opportunities for local people to stay local. “We want our best to stay in the state, and in the past, those interested in the sports side of business had to go elsewhere,” she said. “The state invested in medical and law schools, and now, we have professional sports, giving locals the chance to stay and work here.”
Revenue Streams
Sponsorships have also become a significant revenue stream for the state’s economy.
“Las Vegas is a great market,” said Badain. “Not only is there a strong and growing affluent market living here, but sponsors can reach 40 plus million visitors from around the world. There aren’t many areas that can offer that.”
The Raiders saw this truth in practice. “After the move, we became the number two team in the league for partnerships,” Douglass Morgan said. “It’s the strength of our brand.”
The deals struck by the Raiders in Las Vegas are “significantly higher” than in Oakland, she said.
“We have everything from luxury vehicle sponsorships to casinos and concierges, most of which weren’t available in the earlier location,” she said. “We look for meaningful partnerships with active, long-term community engagement.”
That’s a consistent ask among Nevada’s professional sports teams.
Fargas said the Aces take the communities they represent seriously and expect sponsors to do the same.
“No one is asking where we’re putting their logo now,” she said. “We show up with brands authentically in the same way we show up for Vegas. Our players, like A’ja Wilson, are global. They’re cultural influencers, and we seek out partners who are aligned.”
The “right” advertising also changed for the Reno Aces. Edelstein said the team recently stopped showing any commercials on the video board during games.
“We were spamming people,” he said. “That’s not how we wanted to engage.”
Instead, the team has a “much greater level of sophistication” by leaning into social media and other “more authentic” avenues.
“We sell fewer sponsorships in favor of deeper involvement,” Edelstein said. “We’re humanizing products, bringing them to life in an environment that people associate with having a good time.”
The rising tides of sports in Nevada are lifting all the ships.
“As sports continue to get more popular across the state, the collective consciousness and desire to watch live builds,” Edelstein said. “We’re the outlet for live sports in northern Nevada – we’re live where they live. People don’t follow sports as much as sports follow people, so seeing this movement has confirmed that our state is a great place to run a solid business.”
Fargas said the growth of professional sports in Nevada has also signaled to the world how the state handles business.
“We’ve validated that Nevada is a great home for women’s sports and women-led business,” she said. “Women are executives and leaders here, and they’re running teams, completely embraced by our communities.”
