Sports

Franchises, marquee events, and the venues turning Las Vegas into a scheduled-demand machine.

The desk's read

Sports in Las Vegas stopped being a promotion and became infrastructure: a stadium, an arena, and a race calendar that schedules demand the leisure market no longer supplies on its own. The compression is documented at the top end: Super Bowl LVIII set the all-time Las Vegas weekend ADR record at $747 (source), and NFR pushes first-weekend ADR to roughly $400 against a December baseline near $176 (source).

The compression is not guaranteed, and the desk says so. F1 repriced hard after year one: average three-night race stays fell from $2,314 in 2023 to $1,372 in 2024 (source), and 2025 accommodation ran another 24% cheaper. Economists also note the headline impact figures are gross spending without netting out displaced visitors, and F1's construction period drew lawsuits from local businesses (source). The franchise gates below are the steady state; the events are spikes whose size gets negotiated year by year. The next venue is under construction with the Athletics' ballpark.

Las Vegas Raiders (NFL)

Allegiant Stadium

62,260 avg (2025 season)

+0.1% vs 2024 (62,175)

Slight increase over 2024 (62,175) despite tying for worst NFL record; 547,097 total fans across ten home dates, nearly 62% from out of town.

source

Vegas Golden Knights (NHL)

T-Mobile Arena

17,959 avg (2025-26 season)

-0.1% vs 2024-25 (17,975)

102.6% of T-Mobile Arena's listed 17,500 capacity; slightly below the 17,975 average of 2024-25.

source

Las Vegas Aces (WNBA)

Michelob ULTRA Arena

61 straight sellouts (as of Aug 2026)

sellout streak intact, 61 straight

Sellout streak intact through the 2026 season: 10,224 announced vs. Washington (Aug 2026) marked the 61st consecutive sellout; 10,500 sellout vs. New York Liberty on Jul 30, 2026.

source

Athletics (MLB, arriving)

Sutter Health Park, West Sacramento (temporary); Las Vegas ballpark opens 2028

9,487 avg (2025 at Sutter Health Park; 768,464 total, lowest in MLB)

Playing in Sacramento until the 33,000-seat, $2B Las Vegas ballpark on the former Tropicana site opens in 2028; foundation work completed February 2026 and the project remains on schedule.

source

The marquee franchises

Formula 1

Three runnings tell a maturation story. The inaugural race priced like a once-ever event: LVCVA CEO said the 2025 race should beat the 2024 economic impact of $934M, on higher attendance and ticket sales; final study figure not yet published. (December 2025 (LVCVA)). The second normalized into what the race actually is: 315,000 attendance; ~$1.5B economic impact (incl. one-time Liberty Media infrastructure spend) (November 2023). The third held that level: 306,000 announced attendance; $934M economic impact; 175,000 unique visitors averaging $2,400+ spend each (November 2024). The desk's read: November now carries a roughly $900M-to-$1B anchor weekend, and the 2026 ticket structure (general admission from $50 against $2,000+ grandstands) says the promoter is rebuilding walk-up demand at the bottom while protecting the premium tier. Watch attendance mix for whether that works.

National Finals Rodeo

The steadiest number on the December calendar: 175,846 total attendance over ten sold-out performances at Thomas & Mack Center (up from 170,045 in 2024; highest since 2014); final-night crowd of 17,855 was the top night. (December 4-13, 2025). Forty years in, NFR is less an event than a seasonal floor under the market's slowest stretch; its economics arrive through ancillary bookings as much as the arena itself. Projection: stable, and strategically more valuable as leisure softness makes December's baseline thinner.

The Super Bowl comes back

The NFL has formally awarded Super Bowl LXIII (February 2029) to Las Vegas and Allegiant Stadium. The award was announced March 30, 2026 at the NFL Annual Meeting in Phoenix, with all 32 team owners voting unanimously. It will be the city's second Super Bowl after LVIII in February 2024, which drew over 330,000 visitors, generated more than $1.0 billion in economic impact per Applied Analysis for the LVCVA, and averaged 123.7 million viewers, then the most-watched telecast in U.S. history. Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league is 'excited to bring the Super Bowl back to Las Vegas,' and LVCVA CEO Steve Hill said the first Super Bowl 'showcased the unique energy and scale only this destination can offer.' The intervening games are set elsewhere: LXII at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2028 and LXIV in Nashville's new stadium in 2030. source · source

The case was the 2024 performance: $1.0B economic impact; 330,000+ visitors; $877M gross visitor spending; $33.6M state/local tax revenue (February 2024). A second hosting turns the 2024 numbers from a one-time spike into a repeatable franchise, and it lands the year the Athletics' ballpark opens across the street.

NASCAR

Two race weekends at the speedway: Speedway capacity ~130,000; LVCVA estimated $138M impact for the 2022 fall race (71% of fans from out of town); 2026 figures not yet published (Pennzoil 400 (Mar 14-15, 2026, run); South Point 400 playoff weekend Oct 2-4, 2026). Mid-tier by Vegas standards but out-of-town-heavy, which is the visitor mix the LVCVA pays for. Projection: steady contributor, with upside tied to the fall playoff date holding its slot.

The fight calendar

The combat business keeps resetting its own records: T-Mobile Arena: 19,481 attendance, $10,951,166 gate. (January 24, 2026); T-Mobile Arena: 19,480 attendance, $8,305,158 gate. (March 7, 2026); 70,482 attendance at Allegiant Stadium, a boxing attendance record for the venue; first Zuffa Boxing/TKO stadium card, streamed on Netflix (September 13, 2025); $26,430,566 gate (UFC record, surpassing UFC 306); 20,078 attendance at T-Mobile Arena; Holloway won by first-round TKO (knee injury) (July 11, 2026). The pattern is venue escalation: cards that once lived in arenas now book the stadium, and record gates justify the move each time. Projection: at least one stadium-scale card a year is now the baseline, and Sphere's entry into event bidding adds a second premium room.

Coming up

The record

In the news

Figures as of 2026-08-23.