Every Super Bowl Sunday, thousands of gamblers head to the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino, the largest of its kind in northern Nevada, to bet on the big game and party with football fans. High rollers dine at all-you-can-eat buffets and champagne flows in VIP rooms throughout the massive complex. The long lines come out of the William Hill Sportsbook right off the casino floor.
But the action this year was supercharged because the Super Bowl featured the San Francisco 49ers, and many of the team’s fans in California, where sports betting is still illegal, crossed the border into Nevada to place bets and celebrate with their brothers.
Some of the fans considered traveling to Las Vegas, where the Super Bowl was played for the first time this year. But they didn’t want to fight the crowds just to pay outrageous prices for hotels and meals. Reno might not have the hustle and bustle of Las Vegas, they said, but the self-proclaimed Greatest Small City in the World had the advantage of being affordable and convenient, about a four-hour drive from the Bay Area.
“I could have gone to Vegas, but everything has gone up there,” said Daniel Burnett, a 49ers fan from San Francisco who stayed the weekend in Grand Sierra. “Here, everything is in one place.”
Everything, it seems, but a 49er wins. They fell to the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime, 25-22, leaving many San Francisco fans in the casino stunned and some in tears.
However, it was like Nevada’s Super Bowl overflow party with a decidedly more relaxed atmosphere. Casino hotels in Reno do not have the fountains that grace the Bellagio on the Vegas Strip. Few people come here for midnight helicopter rides. What happens in Reno doesn’t always stay in Reno. But for regulars like Jacob and Nicole Wood, two Raiders fans who drove four hours from Clearlake, Calif., Reno is just fine.
“There’s no way I’m paying $11,000 for a ticket to Las Vegas,” Mr. Wood said. He and his wife, who also bets on horse racing and basketball, have been watching the Super Bowl in Reno for twelve years.
In many ways, the Super Bowl re-emphasized the divide between Las Vegas and Reno. Las Vegas is an international entertainment capital known as the setting for films such as the “Ocean’s” and “Hangover” franchises. After years of shunning professional sports leagues, the city is now home to the Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights and the Raiders of the NFL
Renault? Many casinos have closed or merged. The city center is full of open spaces. Sport? There is a Triple A baseball franchise, the Aces, and the National Bowling Stadium.
And while Las Vegas continues to trade in excess and extravagance, Reno, which is less than a quarter the size, seems forever at a crossroads. The cities remain rivals, especially as they battle over funding in the state capital, Carson City, 30 minutes south of Reno. But when people think of Nevada, Las Vegas usually comes to mind.
“The north-south divide in Nevada is very entrenched and entrenched,” said John L. Smith, a longtime journalist from Las Vegas who now lives in Reno. “The South envied the power of the North. The North was jealous of the pizzeria, the money and the growth of the South.”
It may be hard to think about, but for many years Reno was Las Vegas before Las Vegas became Sin City. Founded in the 1860s as a railroad hub, the town prospered during the silver and gold rushes. Reno became the divorce capital of America because couples only had to live here for six months — reduced in later years to six weeks — before taking advantage of the state’s liberal divorce rules.
As the divorces flooded in, so did the lawyers and bankers. Hotels, casinos and other entertainment centers were opened. After gambling was legalized statewide in 1931, new visitors arrived. Movies that hit the city’s divorce industry were shot in Reno, including “The Misfits,” starring Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable.
But Reno has been a city of transients, and as other states have adopted “no-fault” divorce laws, one of the city’s calling cards has faded. By the 1950 census, Las Vegas had overtaken Reno as casinos moved up the Strip, attracting Hollywood entertainers and larger crowds to southern Nevada.
Named after a Civil War general who never set foot in Nevada, Reno continues to search for a new identity. Beginning in the 1980s, it was hit by a wave of casino closings and bankruptcies. The flow of gamblers coming here slowed after the opening of Native American casinos in California.
Motels and casinos have been torn down to make way for the redevelopment that has just begun. Last year, an overhaul of the old Harrah’s Reno hotel and casino stalled, leaving a huge concern. Many of the remaining casinos are windowless, self-contained bubbles that have turned the surrounding streets into uninviting corridors.
“Downtown is at war with itself, fighting the casino’s needs for parking and open space that appeals to tourists versus mixed-use residential density,” said Alicia Barber, local historian and author of “Reno’s Big Gamble : Image and Reputation in the Biggest Little Town.” “We’re trying to create a sense of place.”
Things got so bad that analysts who studied the city in 2010 wondered whether Reno could turn into the Detroit of the West by 2020. In December, Allegiant Airlines — whose name is on the Super Bowl stadium — said it will no longer fly in or out of Reno, leaving only two airlines offering nonstop flights between the city and Las Vegas.
Over the past decade or so, Renault has been on a roll. Apple, Tesla, Panasonic and other companies have opened facilities in the area, attracting Californians looking for tech jobs and cheaper housing. The city has marketed easy access to world-class skiing and other outdoor activities near Lake Tahoe.
Reno still has plenty of casinos to attract players from California, Idaho, Utah and other neighboring states where sports betting has not been legalized. No one has done more to attract these visitors than the Grand Sierra, which features a movie theater, bowling alley, nightclubs, 3,000-seat theater and Charlie Palmer’s Steakhouse.
Chris Abraham, senior vice president of marketing at Grand Sierra, said the resort hosts a Super Bowl party every year, but guests were up 10 percent this year because the 49ers were in the big game. About 1,600 guests packed a ballroom and dined on barbecue, wings and nachos in Kansas City. Smaller groups paid up to $2,000 for a table at the Lex nightclub.
“A lot of people looked at Las Vegas and said it would be ridiculous there, I can have the same experience here,” Mr Abraham said.
As sports gambling has spread, Grand Sierra and Reno are giving people more reasons to visit. In 2022, the sports book was renovated and a Chickie’s & Pete’s sports bar opened. The resort will invest about $1 billion in the 140-acre property over the next decade, including building a 10,000-seat arena.
But even with all that followed, Reno was still an oasis compared to Las Vegas for some fans this year.
“It feels good, but it feels good because the 49ers are in,” Deron Dow, who drove from San Francisco with his girlfriend Martha Anaya, said before the game.
And he won paying the prices and fighting the crowds in Las Vegas.
“Vegas would be a lot worse,” Mr. Dow said.
