Lionel Messi is the latest star to star in Las Vegas, now a sports destination

LAS VEGAS – Steve Hill, president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), is gushing over the latest star trek to hit his city.

In the past two years, Vegas has welcomed Taylor Swift and Beyonce to perform at the 65,000-seat Allegiant Stadium, as well as hosting its first Formula One race and Super Bowl LVIII. This weekend it’s Lionel Messi’s turn.

World Cup winners Inter Miami play at Allegiant Stadium on Saturday against reigning three-time Liga MX champions Club America.

“Messi is clearly the biggest name in the sport,” says Hill. “Having him come is like getting The Beatles to come or Elvis (Presley) to come. He’s a phenomenon. To be able to have him in town is a thrill and we’re a town that gets very excited. He is the king right now.”

The game itself is of little consequence, a pre-season exhibition notable only for Javier Mascherano’s debut as Inter Miami head coach. But it is the latest stop for the Messi road show and his first appearance here at either club or international level.

Inter Miami will hope their visit – followed by matches in Honduras, Panama and Peru – goes better than their attempts to maximize Messi’s commercial appeal during last winter’s pre-season. He stunned supporters in Saudi Arabia by only appearing as a substitute, then sparked an international incident by not playing in an exhibition match in Hong Kong.

According to Andy Gorchov, general manager of Allegiant Stadium, Saturday’s game will draw between 40,000 and 45,000 people, short of a sell-out but a strong attendance for a non-competitive game where tickets are priced at a low $67 (£55) from official supplier Ticketmaster.

Club America is the most popular Mexican team in the United States. Pedro Garza de Angoitia, director of internationalization and new business at the club, tells Athletics his team has “over 15 million declared fans” in the United States, while American television figures for the team’s matches in the United States often usurp figures recorded by MLS and many English Premier League clubs. In Las Vegas, 34.1 percent of the population is Hispanic or Latino, according to government data, while Mexican fans are also expected to travel from neighboring California and Arizona.

But it is Messi that many will pay to see, and his arrival represents the latest in a series of high-profile sporting events that have come to redefine Las Vegas and diversify its economy beyond gambling.

Hill says, “37 years ago, when I moved here, gambling winnings were the primary income for the properties. They were giving away rooms. We had … 99¢ shrimp cocktails and 99¢ T-Bone steaks. It was, ‘Hey, let get us all here. So let’s hope they lose enough money at the tables… to help the city grow.’

“For the integrated resorts, gambling still matters. And the gaming profits are a significant component of their earnings. But it’s nowhere near half of what it is now for most of them.”

In a surprisingly short time, Las Vegas has become a sports town – with Messi as the latest star in town.

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Las Vegas has added three major league teams in the past decade. The NHL introduced the Golden Knights in 2017 before the NFL’s Raiders moved from Oakland, while the MLB’s Oakland Athletics aim to move to a new ballpark on the iconic Strip by 2028. In the WNBA, the Las Vegas Aces arrived in 2018 from San Antonio, winning back-to- back championships in 2022 and 2023. A martial arts mecca, Las Vegas, hosted the highest-grossing UFC event ever (reported $22 million) in September at the Sphere, selling out a crowd of 16,024.

The development can be attributed to the destigmatization of sports betting, now legal in some form in 38 states, as well as Washington, DC, according to to the American Gaming Association. As sports betting spread across America, leagues dropped their resistance to embracing Las Vegas. In the early 2000s, for example, the city was even prevented from running a tourism ad during the Super Bowl, at a time when Nevada was the only state to offer legal sports betting.

The law change explains, at least in part, why teams have come, but the city’s willingness to dive headfirst into hosting major sports also signals a shift in behavior among those who play. The legalization of sports betting means the need to go to Las Vegas has lessened as locations spring up across the US, but the shift to online betting has also had an impact. Jeff Sherman, VP of Risk at Superbook Nevada, said Athletics that 60 percent of bets placed are now via their app compared to in person.

As such, Las Vegas cannot realistically rely on retail space alone to drive its economy. In fact, Hill explains that his city has 42 million visits a year, generated by about 25 million people, but he warns, “we need new things for them to come and see and do.”

He explains: “We are no longer a monopoly on sports betting or on gambling. So we have a need to continue to expand our offer to keep attracting our customers.

“It’s Las Vegas. There’s no city in the world that has the ability to treat 60,000 people like VIPs at the same time. The scale we have elevates the events.”

Don’t expect the rush to stop here. The NCAA Final Four is in the diary for 2028, while an NBA expansion team appears to be a matter of time. Basketball has plenty of past in Las Vegas, most notably the NBA Summer League, the 2023 In-Season Tournament (semifinals and championship games) and three WNBA All-Star Games since 2019. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver stated early last year on The Pat McAfee Show that “ Vegas is definitely on our list for expansion.”

“There are several groups in the city (of Las Vegas) that are very interested in being a part of that conversation, and I know that they all feel that it should happen sometime that is measured in months and not years,” says Hill. “However, the NBA has not identified a time frame at this time.”

The 2024 Super Bowl, he says, represented “the biggest economic impact we’ve ever had from an event,” bringing in more than $1 billion in estimated additional revenue over what would be a typical full weekend.

Harry Reid International Airport shielded a record nearly 104,000 passengers in a single day on the Monday after the game, while Nevada sportsbooks, boosted by visitors, claimed a record handle of $185.6m. in Super Bowl betting.

No wonder Las Vegas is seeking a repeat, boosted by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s encouraging remarks. Hill says, “The Kansas City Chiefs were there, so Taylor Swift was there. (The NFL) is definitely going to come back. We think it’s a plus or minus, the end of the decade — five to seven years, something like that, we hope .”

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One surprise, perhaps, is that Las Vegas will not be part of FIFA’s big push into North America for the next 18 months, with first the revamped Club World Cup and then the 2026 men’s World Cup taking place in Canada, Mexico and the United States

Allegiant Stadium hosted three games at the Copa America last summer and is hosting the CONCACAF Gold Cup this summer. Hill explains that FIFA’s hosting requirements were an obstacle, despite the city and stadium seriously considering being involved. Allegiant’s pitch dimensions are smaller than FIFA’s minimum requirements, meaning that seats must be removed to pack the stadium in a manner suitable for a World Cup.

“From our estimates, it would have taken the stadium out of service for a total of 15 months over a 21-month period,” he says.

As such, the sacrifice wasn’t worth it—because concerts and other live events matter to Vegas, too. In the coming months alone, it will host AC/DC, Shakira, Post Malone, Coldplay and Kendrick Lamar, as well as Wrestlemania and a rugby league extravaganza that will see four matches in a single day, including teams from Australia, New Zealand and England. Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves from the English Super League will play a regular season game in the United States for the first time. Hill says it would be “very appealing” to host a regular-season European soccer game, such as the Premier League or La Liga, in Las Vegas, but added that he is not aware of any “serious discussions.”

Gorchov says Las Vegas hopes to be a stop-off for fans embarking on road trips or multi-state visits to the World Cup, with similar hopes of being a “great neighbor” to Los Angeles at the 2028 Olympics.

Las Vegas also wants to help either host warm-up matches for some of the 48 teams competing at the men’s World Cup or as a training base for teams competing in nearby states, though it may be a brave nation placing their team in Vegas during a World Cup given the recreational activities on offer. Hill says the issue of risk to athletes still comes up in hosting conversations, especially when Las Vegas hosts college sports, such as the Kick Off Classic headlined by the University of Southern Carolina (USC) and Louisiana State University (LSU) in September 2024.

He says: “If you bring 18, 19 or 20-year-olds here, they’re not allowed to participate yet in Las Vegas, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try. There’s some concern, but you can take to pretty much any city you want and get into trouble. Problems like we have in Las Vegas are not unique to our city.”

In Las Vegas, there is still hope that MLS may one day expand there. According to an MLS official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, more than a dozen groups have looked at bringing a team to Las Vegas since 2007. The closest was an ownership group led by Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris, who also own English Premier League team Aston Villa. They went so far as to trademark the Las Vegas Villains name, but a deterrent appeared to be costly, with a $500 million expansion fee. USD accompanied by an expectation to build a soccer-specific stadium, which would also require a retractable roof to protect the players from the summer desert heat.

Plenty of people in MLS expected Vegas to become the league’s 30th team, only to be beaten hard by San Diego, who will launch next month for the 2025 campaign. MLS is not in active discussions about another expansion team, although Bill Foley, owner of NHL outfit Golden Knights and Premier League Bournemouth, has also previously explored an MLS team in Las Vegas.

Hill insists that Vegas “is a football town”; already home to the United Soccer League’s Las Vegas Lights.

“There are Premier League fans, La Liga fans; it is a broad cross-section,” he adds. “What Vegas brings to these teams in the professional leagues is a much more global view.

“As Vegas continues to grow, there is real interest from the community to have an (MLS) team here, but it’s a little more difficult to find the key that unlocks the door than it is for some of the other leagues.”

Meanwhile, locals and tourists alike will settle for a glimpse of Messi this weekend.

(Top photo: Megan Briggs/Getty Images)