Adding a Major League Baseball (MLB) team, possibly a new National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise, and standalone premier sports events to the Las Vegas experience has bolstered the region’s reputation.
No other city can match Las Vegas in providing excitement and entertainment from the time a sports fan touches down at the airport and the hoopla of the competition to all the entertainment options throughout the city, said Janis Burke, chief sports officer for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
“It’s hard to compete with the fountains of Bellagio,” added Lance Evans, senior vice president of sports for MGM Resorts International. “The guest experience beyond the sport is the primary differentiator. To have your favorite chef or your favorite show or your favorite shop, it’s hard to replicate that.”
Evans and Burke spoke Wednesday at Global Gaming Expo (G2E) on a panel with Matt Prevost, chief revenue officer for BetMGM, and Howard Stutz, senior reporter for the Nevada Independent, who moderated the discussion.
The 40-minute discussion was titled “Big Game Momentum: Leveraging Las Vegas’s Sports Event Pipeline.”
Once known primarily as a boxing capital, Las Vegas now is home to the National Football League’s (NFL) Raiders and the $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium, site of the 2024 Super Bowl. The National Hockey League’s (NHL) was first to plant its flag in the desert with the Vegas Golden Knights, Stanley Cup winners in 2023. The WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces have won three league championships in four years, most recently in 2025.
The MLB’s Athletics are to set to begin play in 2028 at the $2.1 billion ballpark under construction at Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue. The NBA is considering the city for an expansion franchise that would open play by 2028 and a Professional Women’s Hockey League team will have its first home opener in December.
Prevost predicted “a bonanza” for the A’s and the region in the team’s first season.
“You’re going to have lots and lots of visitors from other teams. When the (Chicago) Cubs come to town, they’re going to fill the place,” Prevost said. “It’s up to the city and the resorts to deliver a fan experience that makes them want to come back the next year.”
Evans said that even during hot summers in Las Vegas, baseball fans will travel to the new climate-controlled stadium, whose design includes one of the largest cable-glass windows in North America.
“They’re going to come to a game,” Evans said. “They’re going to gamble. They’re going to restaurants. They’re going to the pool. They’re going golfing. The allure of a new baseball stadium will attract new visitors. We’re betting on the fact that it’s going to be popular.”
More so than other cities, Las Vegas is home to several companies that benefit from a home team’s success, Evans continued. MGM Resorts and BetMGM have a relationship with MLB that provides access to fans that other cities do not have. “We’re going to use those advantages to help drive our customers. We’re incentivized to help make them successful.”
Besides the hometown sports teams, Las Vegas hosts the National Finals Rodeo and an annual Formula 1 race that sends cars traveling more than 140 mph on a 3.8-mile route using city streets, including the Las Vegas Strip.
Burke described competition for premier sports events as a “dogfight.” Las Vegas has landed the 2027 College Football Playoff National Championship, the 24-team Players Era Festival college men’s basketball tournament, and the 2028 NCAA men’s basketball Final Four.
Acknowledging a possible hometown bias, Evans said history shows that Las Vegans will fill the seats for the A’s or the potential NBA team, as they do for the Knights and Raiders.
“There’s going to be a decent amount of away fans (at A’s games) and that’s what the foundation of this town was built on,” he said. “But I think you’ll still see lots and lots of (hometown) fans as well.”
Burke said the LVCVA tries to build the full Las Vegas experience into special events. For a presentation for a world swimming championship, she suggested a videoboard display of rolling dice to introduce swimmers, with the dice total indicating the swimmer’s lane. “Everything we do, we’re trying to incorporate that whole Vegas experience in the event itself,” Burke said.
Prevost recalled that the Golden Knights’s ceremonial raising of their 2023 Stanley Cup championship banner at T-Mobile Arena involved team captain Mark Stone pulling the handle of a giant slot machine, lining up three Stanley Cup symbols, and the banner being pulled from the machine to rafters.
“Other markets are being aggressive. They want the events as well,” Evans said. “They see the magic pixie dust that is Las Vegas and the events that come through here.”
