Las Vegas has always been a town of bright lights. Come this Fall, there will be a blackout as the Las Vegas Raiders are in town and ready for renewed life in the new city.
The Raiders move to Vegas marks a shift in the sports world in one of the country’s most popular cities. After years without professional sports entertainment, the Las Vegas Golden Knights hit the scene in 2017. One year later, the San Antonio Stars of the WNBA decided to move there and become the Las Vegas Aces.
Now with the Raiders move to the desert complete, there is finally a professional football team in the area, complete with a brand new stadium just minutes away from the Strip. There is obvious excitement over the move in town, and now NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell shared his own excitement, via the Raiders’ official twitter:
“Well as you know I was just out there within the last two weeks. You can feel the excitement, you can see the excitement by the stadium. It’s a great facility, I’ve had a chance to be through it on several occasions in the last several months. I think it’s going to be great for the community. I think we’re going to be great for the community and I think the community is going to be great for us. Las Vegas is growing and, I think, becoming a much more diverse city than it has in the past and we are anxious to be part of that. The reception has really been tremendous. You can see it with the fans and the reaction, not only with ticket sales but you see it from the business community and how they’re wrapping their arms around this team. We think it’s going to be a great success, we’re anxious to be there. As you know, we’ll be having the draft there, which will be a good start. As I said when I was out there, I think we should get through the draft before we focus on the Super Bowl, but that is coming quickly and our attempt to move to the next Super Bowl probably will be done before the calendar year here in ’20.”
Las Vegas could soon become the center of the NFL with young talent currently in the Raiders organization. The community has quickly embraced the team and hopefully, the Raiders can return the favor on the field.
As Goodell alluded to, expect future Super Bowls and Pro Bowls to take place at Allegiant Stadium. The city first will officially welcome the league to town this April though when they host the 2020 NFL Draft.
