Nothing quite makes a stadium erupt quite like a winner in double overtime. That’s what I got to see at a Las Vegas Golden Knights game, while the glass from my $40 cocktail sat empty in the cupholder next to me.
I went along for the Las Vegas Golden Knights’ penultimate playoff game against Utah, and was treated to a high-scoring spectacle with fewer fist fights than I would have liked but otherwise no lack of action. And that’s just one of many sports now based in Sin City. If Football is your thing, the city has been the home of the Raiders for many years now.
The Lights, a MLS team, can also be found in Las Vegas as can the Aces, a WNBA team. The Athletics will also be relocating to the city, in a purpose-built stadium at the south end of the Strip. It’s being built where Tropicana used to be, opposite the Excalibur and Luxor casinos.
So Las Vegas is a sport-heavy city now. But there’s a bit more to it than that. I didn’t just fly in to enjoy a hockey game, and nor should you.
It’s still very much Las Vegas, sports aside
As entertaining as a Raiders or Knights game is, flying in just for that is a bit of a waste. And unlike a lot of stadiums, most of the Major League Vegas teams are right on the strip. So you’re spoiled for choice when it comes to hotels, and activities beyond the game itself.
The decision to go and see the Knights was actually a bit spontaneous. I was actually doing my level best to develop gout at BOA, one of the city’s newest steakhouses. I also had tickets set aside at the Atomic Saloon Show, which is also housed in the Grand Canal Shoppes and a short walk from the meat emporium I was currently gorging myself in.
But given the choice, I’m much more partial to hockey than cabaret. So I drank the old fashioned I’d ordered far faster than it deserved, pocketed a couple of cookies for the road, and grabbed an Uber to the Knight’s stadium which is a little further down the strip at Park MGM. It’s amazing how full one can get at a decent restaurant. I ordered vegetables, and those vegetables looked good, but even the waiter suggested I was being optimistic. After deviled eggs, ahi tuna tatare, a jumbo lump crab cake, a tableside-made caesar salad, a “Wagyu Cigar,” two glasses of wine, a cocktail, and a hefty serving of center cut filet I’d had enough.
I got there ten minutes late, and did get a bit distracted by the full bar and carvery present in the section of stadium I found myself in. Someone also mumbled something about a lobster covered hot dog, which I would have hunted down if I didn’t have half a cattle ranch in my digestive system at the time.
What I did manage to get my hands on is another old fashioned. It came in a plastic cup, and it was “stadium priced” at around $40, but it did use a very decent bourbon in the form of Buffalo Trace. And it does somehow feel like better value than the $20 you’ll pay for a beer in this and every other stadium in the land.
Obviously, your planning can and should be better. But the Knights and the strange cowboy themed musical cocktail hour were far from my only options that night. Penn and Teller are somehow still going, there are more musical acts than I have favorited on Spotify, UFC is based here for those of you who enjoy a touch of violence, and if you’re happy to avoid the cocktails you can even drive around on a bit of the city’s F1 track.
And amazingly, the sporting side of things hasn’t just brought a bit of competition for your attention (and entertainment budget). It’s brought a few other non-sporting entertainment options to town too.
Vegas is stealing everyone’s sports teams for infrastructure reasons
With the exception of the Knights, Vegas’ major league teams have been acquired from various parts of California. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as I quite like strolling along The Strip after dark. It’s lively, the lights are a bit of a spectacle, and I feel far less likely to catch a bullet than I would in Oakland.
For Vegas, it’s more than just the prestige of hosting one of each major sports team. Take the Raiders for example. They have eight home games per year. Even if the entire 65,000 seater stadium is filled with visiting fans every game, it’s probably going to take a while to make back the roughly $2 billion that was dropped on the Allegiant Stadium.
But it’s not just hosting football games. For Vegas, it’s another huge venue. One with over three times the capacity of the Sphere. And that makes it easier to lure the likes of Taylor Swift, or Ed Sheeran, or some other popular artist I can’t actually name a song by because all of my music was recorded by indie artists before 2005 to town.
In a way, the Tropicana coming down to build the next stadium on the list was a bit symbolic. Vegas is evolving, with the older casinos making way for these newer, massive, mixed-use entertainment venues. While the Strip was all cheap buffets, 3:2 blackjack, and comped rooms a few years ago, it’s now focused on spectacles like F1, ultra-high-end restaurants, and world leading musical entertainment.
In a way, that’s sad. But all of the fun, gritty, old stuff still very much happens on Fremont Street. We live in a world of options, the good old days of the strip ended long before the Raiders came to town, and what Vegas is evolving into is a damn sight better than whatever the hell Treasure Island is supposed to be.
