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EDITORIAL: Super Bowl Sunday in Vegas

Super Bowl weekend is once again upon us, as Las Vegas reaps the benefit of America’s No. 1 sporting event. You could reasonably argue that our city was built for the Super Bowl, even more so than the game’s host city in any given year. This year, that would be Santa Clara, Calif., where the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos will square off Sunday at Levi’s Stadium, which holds 68,500 fans.

Meanwhile, upwards of 300,000 people are expected here this weekend, with the betting action — particularly all those interesting and even downright crazy proposition bets — often more intriguing than the action on the field itself. There’s no getting around the fact that, if you can’t actually be at the game, there is no better place to be for Super Bowl 50 than in Las Vegas, which is expected to recognize nearly $124 million in economic impact.

And many locals now don’t need to worry about how they will view the game, since Cox Communications and Nexstar, the parent company of local CBS affiliate KLAS-TV Channel 8, settled their dispute Thursday afternoon. That put KLAS back on the airwaves for the 48 percent of the market that Cox serves, meaning those customers hosting Super Bowl parties will be all set for Sunday’s 3:30 p.m. kickoff.

Of course, you could still choose to join the hundreds of thousands of visiting revelers at the countless sports books around town, where the atmosphere is exhilarating and excruciating, all rolled into one — with the potential for money to change hands on practically every play, thanks to those aforementioned props.

Renowned sports writer Steve Rushin, in a recent piece where he imagines Super Bowl 100 in 2066 is held right here in Las Vegas, further imagines that Super Bowl 55 — that’s LV in roman numerals — also takes place here, in 2021. That’s a match made in heaven if there ever was one. Until that happens, though, if you’re a fan of football, betting and being thoroughly entertained, nobody throws a Super Bowl party quite like Las Vegas.

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