Las Vegas is becoming an unexpected sports mecca

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Las Vegas has long been associated as one of the world’s party capitals.

The gambling, opulence, nightclubs, and numerous luxurious hotels have been attracting people from all walks of life to visit the city for any kind of celebration, whether it be wedding parties or graduations.

Yet, even with its reputation as one of the best cities to spend a weekend in, the idea that it would be a hub for sports fans is very new. It wasn’t until the NHL expanded to the city with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017 that one of the “big four” professional sports leagues awarded Sin City a franchise.

The Golden Knights remain the only major league professional team whose entire history lies within Vegas, and the locals have adopted them with open arms. An experience at a Golden Knights home game is much different than that of a Canadian NHL game. Fans are, admittedly, not as intensely analytical as they are in Canada, but that helps to foster a more party-like atmosphere unlike any other arena in the league. It also helps that the team brought a Stanley Cup to the city in 2023.

To add to its appeal, the rink is a block off the strip and directly behind the famous New York New York hotel.

Since then, the city has added an NFL team, the Las Vegas Raiders, who relocated from Oakland in 2019. The city has lovingly adopted the storied football franchise and plays in the beautiful 65,000-seat Allegiant Stadium, which cost a whopping $1.9 billion to build. Located right off the strip, it’s a breeze to walk to.

That traction isn’t stopping anytime soon. Another California team is Vegas-bound, as the MLB’s Oakland Athletics are set to call the city home beginning in 2028. The new ballpark, which will be located on the former site of the newly demolished Tropicana casino and hotel, will reportedly be state-of-the-art and feature 33,000 seats and the MLB’s largest video board at 18,000 square feet.

November will see Vegas transform into a race track with the second annual edition of F1’s Las Vegas Grand Prix coming to town. Festivities for the race will begin on November 21 and continue until the day of the race on November 23. This is a unique race weekend for F1 fans as the actual Grand Prix will take place on a Saturday rather than its usual Sunday, allowing fans to experience a more true-to-life Vegas weekend.

Hotels in the area are pulling out all the stops to host racing fans. The Cosmopolitan and Resorts World are preparing to welcome fans into their luxurious hotels, which will offer stunning views of the race down the strip and multiple parties, events, and activations tailored to the sport’s fans.

But don’t be mistaken; Vegas will also be playing to its strengths. Sports betting has been on the rise in recent years, and Sin City has been at the centre of things. Some of the world’s largest and most impressive sportsbooks call this city home. The Venetian, in particular, has recently overhauled a section of its casino to create a massive sportsbook with a room covered in massive TV screens and even rentable private suites for groups to enjoy themselves.

Basketball is also a growing sport within the city. While Vegas may not yet have an NBA team to call its own, it does have the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, which has been supremely successful, winning two straight titles in 2022 and 2023.

Combat sports, which have a long history of calling Vegas home for big events, will also be busy in the city over the next little while. The UFC will be hosting two more fights over the next two months, with Magny vs. Prates highlighting UFC Fight Night on November 9 and Muhammad vs. Rakhmonov highlighting UFC 310 on December 7 at T-Mobile Arena.

Even wrestling fans will be satisfied as Wrestlemania 41 is set to invade Vegas in April at the aforementioned Allegiant Stadium.

The sports scene in Vegas is growing at an exceptionally fast pace, and while it may not seem like it on the surface, the type of events they have to offer is incredibly broad. When you add that to the shows, hotels, and numerous other experiences that the city was already offering, it’s a wonder that professional leagues didn’t bring teams here decades ago.

One thing is certain: it’s a city that is quickly becoming a sports fan’s dream.

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