The Allegiant Stadium makes its Super Bowl Debut
This year, the Super Bowl comes to Las Vegas and the state of Nevada for the first time. The new home of the Raiders is the perfect venue.
Located right by the famed Las Vegas Strip, the Allegiant Stadium, also known as 'The Death Star', is home to the NFL's Raiders, who played the opening game in their new home on September 21, 2020, defeating the New Orleans Saints 34-24.
Construction began on November 13, 2017. In early August 2019, the Raiders announced a naming rights agreement with airline Allegiant Air. It officially opened in July 2020 and also serves as the home for the UNLV Runnin' Rebels of the NCAA.
The stadium is fully enclosed and air-conditioned to withstand Las Vegas's high temperatures. It has a standard seating capacity of 65,000 people. For Super Bowl LVIII, this has been expanded to accommodate up to 72,000 fans.
The Allegiant Stadium, with a construction cost of just under two billion dollars, was the world's second most expensive stadium at the time of construction, after the SoFi Stadium. It was projected to generate an annual profit of 620 million dollars and create 6,000 permanent jobs.
Of the total cost, the Raiders put in just north of one billion dollars, with another $750 million provided by Clark County, the largest amount of public money ever allocated to a stadium project in the United States. The final amount of $200 million came from NFL financing through its G-4 loan program.
The stadium features two fields: one artificial turf and one natural, both retractable. The artificial turf is used for UNLV Rebels games, while the natural grass is for the Raiders. Super Bowl LVIII though will be played on its own special real turf field.
The natural grass field stays outside on non-game days to soak up the necessary sunlight. It takes about 65 minutes to move it inside or outside the stadium via 13 rails powered by 72 electric motors.
The stadium boasts numerous amenities: 127 suites, 44 escalators, 2,300 screens, ten indoor event spaces, 75,000 square feet of video boards, Wi-Fi, a cashless experience, and also the 92-foot tall Al Davis Memorial Torch.
The venue has hosted concerts by major American and international artists, including Garth Brooks, Guns N' Roses, Rolling Stones, Karol G, Metallica, BTS, The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, Elton John, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, BLACKPINK, and more.
The Allegiant Stadium has also hosted other major sporting events, such as college football games, the Pro Bowl in 2023, and the finals of the 2021 Gold Cup and Concacaf Nations League. Moreover, it has welcomed European football teams like Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund, and Manchester United.
Upcoming sporting events at the venue include three matches of the 2024 Copa América, including a quarter-final, first-round matches of the 2024 National Rugby League season, and the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four in 2028
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