3 new sports, entertainment venues adding nearly 100,000 seats

Las Vegas’ sporting and entertainment venue seating is catching up with its sprawling convention and meeting capacity.

The city will have total seat capacity of more than 339,000 people when three new projects finish in the coming two years, according to a presentation Thursday by Jeremy Aguero, founder of Applied Analysis.

The Raiders stadium, Las Vegas Ballpark and MSG Sphere at The Venetian will add nearly 100,000 venue seats to the city, Aguero told a crowd of convention workers at the Luxor. Las Vegas Ballpark, which seats 10,000, will host its first baseball game Tuesday.

Aguero spoke at an event organized by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to celebrate the meeting industry.

Las Vegas is one of the top trade show destinations in the United States, hosting some of the nation’s largest conventions, including CES and the National Association of Broadcasters Show, which kicks off Sunday.

“Las Vegas has been the gold standard in trade show destinations for many years,” Chris Brown, executive vice president of conventions and business operations of the National Association of Broadcasters, said in a statement. “If you’re in the trade show business and you want to be in the big leagues you know that you need to take your trade show to Las Vegas and it’s always been that way. No other city offers a comparable package of exciting amenities and facilities.”

Las Vegas will have more than 14 million square feet of convention space when current projects finish in a few years.

The city’s convention industry now attracts one in six visitors to town annually, according to LVCVA data. Sports could soon be a major contributor to visitation as more leagues choose Las Vegas to host a team.

The Raiders are scheduled to debut in Las Vegas in 2020, and other leagues are “sniffing around” after the strong support for the Golden Knights, Aguero said.

The Knights attracted more than 18,000 people on average per home game during the 2018-19 season, achieving the 12th-highest attendance for an NHL team. T-Mobile Arena, the home of the Knights, seats 17,000 for hockey, Aguero pointed out.

Las Vegas, though, has a deeper history of holding large-scale sporting events than most people realize, he said, citing the NASCAR races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the annual National Finals Rodeo, which brings about 100,000 people to town. The city is ready to host nearly any sporting event, just as it can host nearly any convention, he said.

“You want to have your archery championship? This is where you do it. You want to have a bowling championship? This is where you have it, because we will build you an arena to do exactly that,” he told the audience of about 100.

The Review-Journal is owned by the family of Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson. Las Vegas Sands operates The Venetian.

Contact Todd Prince at 702-383-0386 or tprince@reviewjournal.com. Follow @toddprincetv on Twitter.