OT: Las Vegas a new destination in college football?

Submitted by Kewaga. on

When Las Vegas’ 65,000-seat domed stadium opens in 2020, its primary purpose will be to serve as the home of a team who will be known as the Las Vegas Raiders. However, it could also have far-reaching effects on college football.

 

1)   UNLV Rebels

 

2)  The Las Vega Bowl

 

3) PAC-12 Football Championship game

 

4) College Football Championship game

 

5) Neutral site games

 

http://www.espn.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id/109061/las-vegas-new-football-…

SLS

April 2nd, 2017 at 2:26 PM ^

It's interesting that the College Football Playoffs operate independently of the NCAA. Since that's the case I would imagine there will definitely be a playoff game there in the near future.

LSAClassOf2000

April 2nd, 2017 at 2:36 PM ^

That's what I was thinking too - there's every chance it becomes a Final Four venue rather early on in its life. Of course, that means more opportunities to be at a hoops (well, converted to hoops temporarily) venue where you need a telescope to see the action, but all the same, I bet it happens not too long after it opens. 

Alton

April 2nd, 2017 at 4:47 PM ^

Las Vegas isn't going to outbid Indianapolis or New Orleans or Phoenix or whatever.  Why would they?  This isn't some weird untapped money source.  It's yet another big stadium in yet another second-tier metropolis that wants to be thought of as "big league."  There are somewhere between 10 and 20 of those across the nation.

And unlike Dallas, Seattle, Atlanta, and all of those other places, Las Vegas doesn't have a bunch of hotel rooms sitting empty on the first weekend of April, so there is actually less money in it for Las Vegas than there is for places like Tampa, Minneapolis, and Detroit.

The NCAA isn't going to think "1. put a championship in Las Vegas, 2. ???, 3. profit"  That's not how the NCAA makes its money anyway.

 

Maize in Cincy

April 2nd, 2017 at 2:36 PM ^

B1G should dump Rutgers and add UNLV.  I would love to travel there for games, and it's a cheap flight from anywhere.

Seriously though I would imagine the PAC12 will be taking a look.

FGB

April 2nd, 2017 at 5:03 PM ^

The PAC 12 basketball tournament is already held in Las Vegas every year. The concept of LV and hoops is not novel. This doesn't change that and no one is going to regularly play hoops at a football stadium, that's got to be a rare occurrence, otherwise you'll start to see 25K people in a 70K-seat stadium

Qmatic

April 2nd, 2017 at 2:38 PM ^

2021 it'll host the CFP championship game. All 6 of the NY6 bowls are locked in to specific locations so it won't be used for the semifinals unless they ditch one now, which is unlikely because the Cotton Fiesta and Peach are all at state of the art stadiums

Longballs Dong…

April 2nd, 2017 at 7:19 PM ^

I was just reading an article in Business Insider about what a terrible deal the stadium is for Vegas. here's a taste: About a third of tickets are supposed to be purchased by tourists, although no other city manages 10 percent. Why half a million people would fly across the country to watch a team that no one wants to pay $20 to see in Oakland is not clear. I think you'll see a decent number of road team fans traveling, but will there be any local fans? I think someone thought it was a good idea, but this could fail miserably.

northkent40

April 3rd, 2017 at 12:31 PM ^

People are always looking for an excuse to do Vegas for a weekend and here it is.  Plus I think people will flock to LV to watch since the team appears set to be good for the forseeable future.  I wouldn't be surprised if the Raiders draw more LA people than the Chargers and Rams, given the Chargers' stadium situation and the Rams' overall level of suckishness.  

Perkis-Size Me

April 3rd, 2017 at 7:12 AM ^

That's what they're banking on. I don't think they care all that much about whether the Knights themselves draw well. They know that a lot of opposing fans will come into town on a weekend and see the games. Especially fans for Original Six teams. Have to imagine Red Wings, Hawks and Rangers fans would absolutely flood that arena.

Now how well they're going to draw on a week night, I'm not sure. That's where you'll really see if the team has local support. But those weekend games will be packed.