Nevada officials are ramping up their pursuit of future sporting events, with the new Las Vegas Stadium for the relocating Oakland Raiders factoring into those plans.
As a whole, the Las Vegas sports scene is rapidly changing. The city now features the NHL’s Vegas Gold Knights at T-Mobile Arena, while professional soccer’s Las Vegas Lights FC (USL) have debuted to large crowds at Cashman Field this spring. Cashman Field is also the current home of baseball’s Las Vegas 51s (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League), but that team is expected to move into a new ballpark in Downtown Summerlin. Another recent development is a new WNBA team, as the Las Vegas Aces will play the upcoming season at Mandalay Bay Events Center after relocating from San Antonio.
That changing landscape includes the Raiders, who are preparing to move to Las Vegas in 2020. With the sports and sports facilities scene expanding in Las Vegas, Nevada governor Brian Sandoval recently created the Southern Nevada Sporting Event Committee. Among that committee’s tasks will be to identify ways for Las Vegas and its venues to attract major sporting events. More from The Las Vegas Sun:
Now that Las Vegas is home to several professional sports teams, “additional opportunities to attract major sporting events and associated activities to our state are arising, especially with the addition of the new stadium,” Sandoval said.
The Raiders, who are building a $1.8 billion stadium behind the Strip, are scheduled to start playing football in Las Vegas in 2020. The Golden Knights hockey team, the Aces basketball team, the Lights soccer team and the 51s baseball team also call Las Vegas home.
The committee will look at annual events hosted by professional and amateur sports leagues, the availability of arenas, stadiums and other large venues, and transportation, among other issues. It will recommend improvements to accommodate major sporting events.
“I was excited to hear Las Vegas was one of five finalists under consideration to host the NFL Draft in 2019 or 2020,” Sandoval noted in announcing the committee. The NFL is expected to make its selection at league meetings in May.
Future plans for the game remain to be seen, but it stands reason that at some point the new Las Vegas Stadium could host a Super Bowl. The NFL has already announced Super Bowl sites through 2022, with the hosts of games beyond that period still to be determined.
Rendering courtesy MANICA Architecture.
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