Published at 11:59 p.m., March 18, 2023.
Last update: March 18, 2023 at 12:06h.
Almost half of the 1.7M people who attended Allegiant Stadium’s sporting and music events in 2022 were tourists, according a report in the LasVegas Review-Journal. This is almost twice the original forecast.
Stadium Authority chair Steve Hill — who also serves as president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority — told the newspaper that his organization had predicted that tourism would account for only 27% of an average Allegiant crowd. That number was somewhere between 40 and 49 percent.
The highest proportion of tourists to Las Vegas was 87%, or 48,716 people, who were there to watch the Shamrock Series game between Notre Dame University and BYU on October 8, 2022.
This is great news for Las Vegas tourism, which has been converting many who opposed the original plan to build Allegiant.
10 According to the stadium authority, 81% of those fans traveled to Las Vegas specifically to attend that game.
In Your Face, Doubters!
This is great news for Las Vegas tourism, the kind winning converts of those who opposed the original plan to build Allegiant.
Constructed between 2017 and 2020 to bring the NFL’s Raiders over from Oakland, the stadium cost $1.9B. It is the second-most expensive stadium built, after the Rams’ $5.5B SoFi in LA. Contrary to SoFi, Allegiant was funded 100% by private funds. $750M of Allegiant’s cost was paid by Clark County municipal bonds. The bonds were funded by a 1.4% tax on Las Vegas hotel rooms. This tax partially funded the expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center. In a statement made at the time, Nevadans for the Common Good said the stadium deal “involves substantial risk to the public without providing commensurate community benefits.” A statement from the Nevada Taxpayers Association noted that there was “significant data indicating that subsidized stadiums can be a detriment to a community.”
News of Allegiant’s unexpectedly high 2022 contribution to Las Vegas tourism was enough to get at least one former naysayer singing a new tune. It has been incredibly beneficial.”
Tick Segerblom (now a Clark County Commissioner) stated that Allegiant’s unexpectedly high 2022 contribution to Las Vegas tourism was enough to get at least one former naysayer singing a new tune. It has been truly incredibly helpful.”