Las Vegas: A new hub for professional sports

Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino has welcomed guests to the south end of the Las Vegas Strip for 25 years. The 43-story mega-resort houses 3,209 rooms. That includes Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas on the top five floors. Chances are, you already know Mandalay Bay history, but if you haven’t checked in for a while, you may not realize Allegiant Stadium, new home field of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders, is right out back — just a pigskin’s toss west across the I-15 freeway. 

Welcome to the Raiders’ Fan District (more on this later), which is part of an even bigger phenomenon. Long a mecca for major boxing and “pro” wrestling matches, Las Vegas has transformed into one of the top all-around sports viewing destinations in the country.

Today, you can add a live NFL, NHL, or WNBA game — or even Grand Prix racing on the Strip — to your itinerary. In 2028 there’ll be Major League Baseball games when the Oakland Athletics move in. The Tropicana resort-hotel has been torn down to make way for an MLB stadium right there on The Strip.

At the 18,000-seat T-Mobile Arena (nestled between the New York-New York and Park MGM casino-resorts), you can try to score a treasured ticket for a Las Vegas Golden Knights hockey game. Founded in 2017, The Golden Knights were the 2023 Stanley Cup champs. The next NHL season runs from October 4, 2024 to June 25, 2025.

Women’s sports are also getting long overdue attention. The Las Vegas Aces are the reigning WNBA champions. The season spans from May to September. The Aces play home games in the Michelob Ultra Arena in Mandalay Bay and regularly sell out the 12,000-seat venue. Earlier this year when Iowa phenom Caitlin Clark and her new pro team the Indiana Fever came to town to play, the Aces the game was moved to the bigger T-Mobile Arena. 

Starting last year: Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix. The Strip will once again be transformed into a Formula 1 racetrack from November 21 to 23. There are a variety of viewing packages available, ranging from general admission to premium luxury boxes for groups that cost up to $35,000.

Vegas has also built a buzzworthy reputation as a place to watch televised sporting events that aren’t even being played in the city.

The opening week of the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament comes around on March 20 to 23, 2025. No, games are not hosted here. Still, casino-resorts fill up ballrooms and special event spaces with tables, chairs, huge TVs, food offerings, and rabid, cheering college hoops fans. Book early. March Madness causes a citywide hotel room sellout.

Last year’s NFL Super Bowl was held for the first time at the 65,000-seat Allegiant Stadium. The next Super Bowl (February 9,
2025) will be in New Orleans — but the event will still sell out nearly all of Vegas’ 150,000 hotel rooms. 

Let’s focus on that upcoming 2024-25 NFL football season. Beginning in September, the Raiders will play eight home games: Carolina Panthers (September 22), Cleveland Browns (September 29), Pittsburgh Steelers (October 13), Kansas City Chiefs (October 27), Denver Broncos (November 24), Atlanta Falcons (December 16), Jacksonville Jaguars (December 22), and the Los Angeles Chargers on a date to be determined at the end of the season.

If you’re planning to catch an NFL game during a Vegas trip, it makes a lot of sense to stay within The Fan District at the Mandalay Bay. Having a hotel home base near Allegiant can eradicate game-day transportation issues. 

Allegiant has a relatively small parking lot. Not all modes of transportation, including buses, taxis, and rideshares, are allowed directly into the lot. On Raiders game days, the city wisely shuts down vehicle traffic on Mandalay Bay Road. It’s common for thousands of fans to walk from Mandalay Bay across the Hacienda Avenue Bridge to get to Allegiant.

If you stay at Mandalay Bay, there are game-day bargains and countless places to eat, drink, and entertain yourself before and after a game. During a recent visit, I dined at new eatery Orla, goofed around at an adult playground/bar, and chilled at an ice bar.

Orla is a Mediterranean-style restaurant by Michael Mina. Sitting at the bar, I started with a fresh, chilled lobster salad that came in a slickly crafted stack. Everyone around me took notice when the waiter delivered a salt-baked sea bream entree. Served atop a bed of shaved zucchini, the light, white fish came wrapped in grape leaves and an egg white-based casing. When everything was peeled off, the bream was doused with capers. Fascinatingly delicious.

Play Playground is in a mall-like hallway that connects Mandalay Bay and Luxor. It’s only for the 21-and-up crowd. You can order a mojito and play interactive games, like Doctor! Doctor!, a life-sized version of the battery-powered board game Operation.

They give you a fur jacket and gloves before you enter Minus5 Ice Bar in Mandalay Bay. The bar, tables, and chairs are all made of blocks of ice. I tried to look cool drinking a vodka-infused hot chocolate. A line of “Pretty In Pink” cocktails are also available. In a fun surprise, the Ice Bar exit leads into a cozy, après-chill piano bar. On this night, the show included piano sing-a-longs and burlesque dancing. It all went down smoothly paired with a Bombay Sapphire martini with blue cheese-stuffed olives.

I took one timeout from the Fan Zone. Having watched all six seasons of The Crown on Netflix, I detoured to Princess Diana & The Royals: The Exhibition at The Shops at Crystals (part of Aria Resort & Casino). It’s a self-guided tour that pays homage to Lady Di, her gowns and accessories, the royal family, and lots of British history. To tie things up neatly in a sports-related bow, I did take notice of one particular artifact: a 1957 University of Maryland football game program that had Queen Elizabeth II on the cover. Touchdown!