Question of the Day - 07 November 2022

Although it was renovated as recently as 2015, when a press tower and luxury suites were added, the 51-year-old Sam Boyd Stadium was nearing the end of its lifespan when Allegiant Stadium came along. Also, at 36,800 seats, it's more than overshadowed by its much bigger and much newer Strip stadium sibling. Las Vegas Review-Journal sportswriter Ron Kantowski uses terms like “quaint” to describe the pocket-sized stadium on the marshy outskirts of southeast Las Vegas.
 
Meanwhile, Sam Boyd was essentially doomed to darkness by a non-compete clause in the overall deal that turned the Oakland Raiders into the Las Vegas Raiders. in other words, no sports and no concerts.

“That was the deal among all the parties when the stadium legislation was drafted,” Applied Analysis economist Jeremy Aguero told Kantowski. “UNLV, I suppose, could certainly keep Sam Boyd open, but it would put in jeopardy the revenues it would receive.”
 
The revenue Aguero was referring to is the $3.5 million a year for 10 years the university, which owns the stadium, collects to keep Sam Boyd shuttered.

However, former Las Vegas Events President (and author of our book Rock Vegas) Pat Christenson told the R-J, "The cost of maintaining it and firing it up would make no sense, especially if you're doing smaller-attended events. It also goes counter to the agreement with the Raiders. Every time you try to do something at Boyd, you have to jump through hoops. Anything that’s competitive, anything of substance that will draw fans, the Raiders will do at Allegiant.” 

One exception was the May 2021 UNLV commencement ceremony, held at Sam Boyd for social-distancing purposes. Another was when the stadium was opened for COVID testing at the height of the omicron surge last January. 

Assuming UNLV doesn’t demolish Sam Boyd (which seems unlikely), a couple of prospects present themselves for its future.

The first would be selling the land in order to accumulate more acreage closer to the campus. Who would buy it? Perhaps a Major League Baseball team. Perhaps a major master-planned-community or industrial developer. 

Clark County School District Athletic Director Tim Jackson covets it as what Kantowski describes as “a public-high-school football facility for games of the week or marquee matchups against out-of-state teams that would be worthy of television coverage.”
 
Jackson said, “Two years ago, we had some [football] fields under construction and what we ended up doing is having three or four games on a Saturday out there. It was hugely successful. The kids loved it, we loved it, and we would love to continue that.”

High-school football hardly seems like something Allegiant Stadium would covet, either.

Finally, the stadium has been floated as a place for the new Vegas Vipers XFL team to play, but we'll see what Allegiant, and other venues around the city, have to say about that.