Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium Nearly Doubled 2022 Tourism Forecast

Nearly half of the 1.7M fans who packed sporting and music events at Allegiant Stadium in 2022 were tourists, according to a new report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. That is nearly double the number that was originally forecast.

Stadium Authority chair Steve Hill — who also serves as president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority — told the newspaper that his organization had predicted that tourism would account for only 27% of an average Allegiant crowd. Instead, that number turned out to be between 40% and 49%.

But the highest percentage of tourists was the whopping 87% (or 48,716 fans) in the stands for the October 8, 2022, one-off Shamrock Series football game between Notre Dame and BYU. According to the stadium authority, 81% of those fans traveled to Las Vegas specifically to attend that game.

In Your Face, Doubters!

This is great news for Las Vegas tourism, the kind that’s winning converts from those who opposed the original plan to build Allegiant.

Those bonds were backed by the proceeds of a 1.4% special tax on Las Vegas hotel rooms — a tax that also partially funded an expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

In 2016, two grassroots lobbying organizations fiercely opposed the public funding, noting that it came at a time when state budgets had been slashed by $300M to cover shortfalls.

In a statement made at the time, Nevadans for the Common Good said the stadium deal “involves substantial risk to the public without providing commensurate community benefits.” A statement from the Nevada Taxpayers Association noted “significant data indicating that subsidized stadiums can be a detriment to a community.”

Naysayer Changes Opinion

News of Allegiant’s unexpectedly high 2022 contribution to Las Vegas tourism was enough to get at least one former naysayer singing a new tune.

In 2016, Tick Segerblom, now a Clark County Commissioner, was one of only five state senators who voted against Allegiant’s public funding.

“The truth is, I think it’s beat everybody’s wildest expectations,” Segerblom told the R-J. “It filled a void, and now we can hold any event in the world. It really has been incredibly beneficial.”