Key Highlights
- Vegas hosts one of the most thrilling races on the calendar.
- The Aces have become the first WNBA team to sell out consecutive seasons at Michelob Ultra Arena.
- Vegas is set to join a club of four-league cities with the arrival of Major League Baseball’s Oakland A’s in 2028.
- Allegiant Stadium, home of the Raiders, frames the skyline and hosts various events from the Super Bowl to BTS concerts.
The Rise of Las Vegas as a Sports Destination
In late November, Las Vegas transforms into a spectacle-filled hub for sports enthusiasts. The city is not just hosting one thrilling race; it’s becoming an immersive experience that blends competition with entertainment. A-listers fill the steakhouses and hotel lobbies, while cars roar down the Strip.
The Sphere lights up with updates across 1.2 million LEDs, and the grandstand leaps to its feet as drivers stride out onto the track.
For three nights in November, Las Vegas is not just a backdrop for a Formula 1 race; it’s the event itself. Bradley Cooper stands shoulder-to-shoulder on the grid walk with me, his eyes sparkling like the LED lights above us. The city has always been a chameleon, shedding its Sin City skin to embrace a more family-friendly persona. Over two decades, it worked to diversify its visitor economy, and now it’s undergoing its most electric reinvention yet: as a sports capital.
From Sin City to Sports Capital
The shift began in 2017 when the Golden Knights arrived as Las Vegas’s first pro hockey franchise. That same year, nationwide sports betting was legalized, opening the floodgates for other teams. The WNBA’s Aces followed suit in 2018, and the NFL’s Raiders landed in 2020, giving locals something to rally around.
By 2025, the Aces had become three-time champions, selling out consecutive seasons at Michelob Ultra Arena.
It isn’t just locals filling those seats. In a city built around tourism, sports have become a hook for visitors craving a Vegas spin on traditional games. “Now people come here just to watch an Aces game,” says guard Chelsea Gray, who moved from California. This trend is only set to grow with the arrival of Major League Baseball’s Oakland A’s in 2028, making Las Vegas a four-league city.
The momentum keeps building.
Sports bars swell with out-of-towners who spill onto the Strip, high-fiving strangers. Everywhere from greasy spoons to white-tablecloth steakhouses gets swept into the rush. On the Strip, all four miles of it, fandom wraps around you like the desert heat.
Combining Competition and Hospitality
Allegiant Stadium, home of the Raiders, serves as a strong symbol of this ambition. Its jet-black shell and retractable walls frame the skyline, drawing fans for everything from the 2024 Super Bowl to BTS concerts. Steve Hill, CEO and president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, likens its impact to The Mirage, which launched the Vegas mega-resort back in 1989.
By 2028, the capacity will grow with a 30,000-seat baseball stadium rising on the former Tropicana site.
With baseball and football seasons complementing each other, Las Vegas will soon have a pro sports game every other day. Even Downtown, long the nostalgic counterpoint to the Strip, has been pulled into the current.
At Stadium Swim inside Circa Resort & Casino, sports fans can swim in six heated pools arranged like an amphitheater and order bottle service while watching the Golden Knights on a 143-foot screen. Below it, the “world’s biggest sports book” towers three stories high, packed with punters perched on the edge of blue banquettes.
Sports books were once side acts but are now where Vegas’s two identities—sports and spectacle—meet. “Sports betting used to be an amenity; now it moves the needle,” says Lamarr Mitchell, director of trading at BetMGM. The race as seen from outside the Bellagio—on a street circuit that could only exist on the Strip.
The Game May End But the Show Never Stops
After the checkered flag, Raiders fans in black Crosby jerseys have already taken over for the Sunday game. I spot a group in F1 team caps strolling by. “No,” one says, pointing to a rooftop bar, “but we had the best seats in the house.” They squeezed in dinner at Mother Wolf, partied at Liv, then hit Eggslut for a bacon, egg, and cheese brioche that was, as they put it, “fucking great.”
Suddenly my own choices—race, then bed—feel painfully underwhelming. After all, it’s still Vegas, where the game may end but the show never stops.
