Las Vegas Likely to Host Next Super Bowl Within Five Years

^{Allegiant Stadium hosted Super Bowl LVIII in 2024, an event that delivered record-setting economic impact for Las Vegas. (Photo: courtesy of Raiders.com)}

LAS VEGAS – The next three Super Bowls all have host cities set in stone, starting with this Sunday’s big game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Las Vegas officials are hoping that Allegiant Stadium will still be the site of Super Bowl LXIII in February of 2029, possibly giving another huge boost to the economy by filling the city's land-based casinos and hotel rooms after a successful hosting debut in 2024. 

However, Nashville has emerged as a serious competitor, fueled by the construction of a new stadium set to open in 2027. Sin City might need to cede hosting the big game to Music City for at least one more year, as Nashville is scheduled to finish construction on the new Nissan Stadium two years before Super Bowl LXIII. 

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has already submitted a letter for Nashville to host the game in 2029, and his bid may be building too much momentum for Vegas to overcome. 

Vegas’ Economic Track Record vs. Nashville’s New Stadium

Veteran Las Vegas journalist and LVSportsBiz.com publisher Alan Snel noted that public investment often plays a key role in the NFL’s hosting decisions.

“The NFL loves to award Super Bowls to cities/governments that provide public money to help build NFL stadiums,” said Snel. “The state of Tennessee, the local sports authority, and various tax revenues are providing a total of more than $1.2 billion in government assistance toward the construction of the Titans' NFL stadium.”

Meanwhile, Super Bowl LVIII was the largest entertainment event in Las Vegas's history. Event officials believe the next big game hosted there will be bigger and better than ever, giving the NFL a tough choice to make between two popular tourist destinations.

“What we've seen from major events [like] the Super Bowl, is you actually have as many or more people that are in town because the event is taking place that weekend, than you actually have people attending the venue,” said Jeremy Aguero, a principal analyst for Las Vegas-based consulting firm Applied Analysis. 

"There were over 300 events, everything from business meetings from the NFL to concerts that went on in collaboration with the event itself," Aguero added.

According to Aguero, Las Vegas recorded its highest gaming revenue and revenue per available room during the Super Bowl.

Two-Horse Race TBD at NFL’s Annual League Meeting

Las Vegas and Nashville are obviously the two favorites to host Super Bowl LXIII. Buffalo’s new stadium is opening later this year, too, but it is not considered a serious contender due to its lack of a dome or a retractable roof. 

NFL owners will gather in Phoenix between March 29 and April 1 for the Annual League Meeting, where they are expected to select and announce the 2029 Super Bowl venue.

Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority (LVCVA) CEO Steve Hill confirmed in a recent discussion with Alan Snel that the city has formally applied to host the Super Bowl in 2029, 2030, and 2031.

“Every year they want to be here, we’d be more than happy to take it,” Hill said during the interview. “It’s the pinnacle of professional football. It’s just an extraordinary single event that makes the week, it makes the month, it makes the quarter every time it’s here.”

The good news is that even if Vegas does not secure Super Bowl LXIII in 2029, the following year or two seem like a sure bet. Hill emphasized that Las Vegas has a great relationship with the NFL, and "there’s no place that can put on an event" like this city can.

"Based on observing the NFL picking Super Bowl game sites, the Las Vegas versus Nashville showdown for 2029 is a coin flip,” Snel said. “Both are great tourism and big event destinations. The Las Vegas infrastructure works nicely with the airport, Strip hotels, convention center, and stadium concentrated in one geographic area, in contrast to the spread-out nature of Super Bowl host situations like Santa Clara and South Florida.”  

Snel is betting on Las Vegas to beat out Nashville for Super Bowl LXIII, since the previous positive experience with Super Bowl LVIII three years ago only works in Vegas's favor.

“There’s literally no city in the world that has the ability to treat 65,000 people like a VIP all at the same time other than Las Vegas," Hill said. "Everybody who came to that [last] Super Bowl felt that. This city can perform at scale at a level that nobody else can.”

Vegas More Than Ready for Next Big Opportunity

Another factor working in Vegas's favor for 2029 is that the LVCVA has approved an additional $100,000 in annual funding from this year through 2030 for Applied Analysis, led by Aguero. The firm was already getting $250,000 per year to help produce economic impact reports, and now the bar has been raised even more in hopes of closing the deal on the Super Bowl and other major events in the near future.

Aguero, who also serves as 2027 Las Vegas College Football Playoff Host Executive Committee, has been working on plans for the city to host the CFP National Championship Game in January 2027 at Allegiant Stadium. Hosting Super Bowl LVIII in 2024 provided a roadmap for large sporting events like this.

"This entire town was bursting at the seams, relative to not only people filling up every hotel room, every Airbnb, and people staying with their aunt," Aguero said. "Because they wanted to be in Vegas for the parties and things that were taking place around the Super Bowl. These events generate tremendous amounts of revenue. They are a spectacle.”

Whether that spectacle returns in 2029 or later is something Aguero, Hill, and the rest of Las Vegas hope happens sooner rather than later. And they will get their answer within the next two months, once NFL owners meet to decide whether Las Vegas will get another opportunity to host the biggest game in American sports.