On Tuesday morning, Scott Thompson, the comedian known as Carrot Top, was drinking tea in his dressing room at the Luxor Hotel and Casino, where he has been a front man for 18 years. Before an afternoon full of appearances on Radio Row, which is a mecca for sports radio stations during Super Bowl week, Mr. Thompson pondered the impact of the game on Las Vegas.
“I think this is the biggest event we’ve ever had,” Mr Thompson said.
How big? He wore a baseball cap with a hand-made sticker that read “I need tickets” on the front. Yes, even Carrot Top had trouble getting tickets to Sunday’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers.
“That’s what everyone says: ‘You’re Carrot Top! You own this city!” said Mr. Thompson. “But I really can’t get one.”
It can be difficult for even the glitziest of events to make an impression in Las Vegas, a technicolor oasis in the Nevada desert epitomized by the Strip—a vast collection of hotels, casinos, and restaurants located just outside the city limits. and has the manic energy of a pinball machine.
But Las Vegas seems enthralled by the Super Bowl, which is making its first appearance in a place the NFL, not too long ago, shunned to the point of parody. Now, ahead of the big game, the league has virtually wallpapered its image in Las Vegas.
“We’ve hosted a lot of events outside of sports, but this is on another level,” said Vashti Cunningham, an Olympic high jumper and lifelong Las Vegas resident whose father, Randall, was an NFL quarterback. “It feels like there’s a lot of momentum.”
The excitement of the city is embodied, in a distinctly Las Vegas way, by the fluorescent topography of the Strip. The Sphere, a 360-foot-tall amphitheater, has used its 1.2 million LED screens to transform itself into a huge football helmet. Caesars Palace displays a Watch Super Bowl themed videos in front of him every night.
The NFL’s relationship with Las Vegas has changed dramatically. Consider that, in 2015, the NFL banned players from attending a fantasy football convention hosted by Tony Romo in town because it was located in a casino. The event has been cancelled.
The Raiders, who moved to Las Vegas in 2020, now play their home games at Allegiant Stadium, which is within walking distance of about 100 gazillion slot and craps tables. The NFL has forged lucrative partnerships with sports betting companies. And on Sunday, Mr. Romo will return to Las Vegas — this time to help broadcast the Super Bowl for CBS.
“We couldn’t afford to pay for the value of the media exposure we’re going to get,” said Mary Beth Sewald, president and CEO of the Vegas Chamber.
Terry Fator, a ventriloquist whose eponymous show plays at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino, said he always trembled when he walked past the football stadium, which opened in 2020. (Taylor Swift, a high-profile NFL fan, had a couple of gigs there last March.)
“The city is a different place than it was a few years ago,” Mr Fator said. “For many, many years, Las Vegas was, ‘I’m going to gamble, and that’s it.’ Well, now there’s a lot more to do here.”
The Super Bowl, he said, is just the latest example, albeit an important one. Mr. Fator, 58, usually performs on Sundays, but takes the day off to watch the game on his 160-inch projection screen with his wife, Angie Fiore Fator.
“It’s really horrible when you have to do a show and you miss the last few minutes of the Super Bowl,” Mr. Fator said. “We’ll let the city celebrate while we celebrate at home.”
When Formula 1 made its long-awaited return to Las Vegas for a race in November, it was more of a headache than a spectacle. A months-long construction project to prepare the course led to road closures, traffic congestion and heavy losses for small businesses. Ticket prices for the match itself were prohibitively expensive and many hotels made the mistake of overcharging for rooms.
“High-end properties did well, but the average Joe suffered,” said Jay Kornegay, executive vice president of gaming and operations for Westgate Resorts. “Even though they are F1 fans, they were just exhausted. And when other properties tried to lower their prices, it was too late.”
Aside from the scarcity of tickets, the NFL doesn’t seem to cause the same problems for residents. The roads are open so far (most of them, anyway), and the league knows how to market its event.
“The Super Bowl is for everybody,” Mr. Kornegay said. “It’s for football fans. It’s for singles. It’s for married couples. It is for young and old. And the spaces we have around here can accommodate those widespread demographics.”
The Super Bowl has long been an important weekend for Las Vegas, with the city typically drawing 300,000 visitors regardless of where the game is played. And that number was more than enough for the city’s 154,000 hotel rooms to “sell out every Super Bowl weekend,” according to Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee executive Jeremy Aguero. This year’s event has more noise, more events and more logistical hurdles, but that will likely translate to about 10 percent more visitors, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
However, more people and more excitement means more money. Jeff Benson, the director of operations for Circa Sports, a sports betting company, said he expected a “land record,” or amount of money wagered, over the weekend.
“The NFL is king,” he said. “And the Super Bowl is king.”
Vicki Barbolak, a comedian who has appeared on “America’s Got Talent,” has felt the impact of the Super Bowl. She has a regular show at Jimmy Kimmel’s Comedy Club on the LINQ Promenade, but her shows were canceled this week due to “Super Bowl Prep,” she said. He later learned that Verizon had rented the space for a promotional event.
“The good news is they still pay us,” said Ms. Barbolak, 66, who splits her time between Las Vegas and San Diego. “I want to go there and pretend I left something at the warehouse to get free shrimp and stuff. It has to be fancy.”
Ms. Barbolak’s father, Pete, who died in 2006, spent one season in the NFL as an offensive tackle with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He said he would have gotten a kick out of Las Vegas hosting the Super Bowl.
“He would be there, no doubt,” he said. “He loved football and he loved gambling. Who doesn’t?”
Along the Strip, it’s Super Bowl 24/7. Over-the-top? Of course. Bother? No more than usual.
“Formula 1 was hated by the locals because all it did was ruin our lives,” Ms Barbolak said. “Nobody wanted to go anywhere near him. The servers and bartenders lost huge amounts of money for three weeks. I saw some hot Italians walking by, but other than that there was nothing for any of us. But the Super Bowl? Everyone is so proud and excited.”
Ms. Barbolak plans to watch the game at the Composers Room, a vintage bar east of the Strip that is hosting a special event: the “Super Nacho Bowl.”
Wayne Newton, the 81-year-old entertainer known as Mr. Las Vegas, recalled the old days when a fake businessman struggled to lure patrons from casinos to a racetrack. (It closed in 1954 shortly after opening.)
On Monday, a pair of showgirls escorted Mr. Newton to a deck chair for a press conference so he could christen a week full of Super Bowl-related festivities. Given the city’s history, he never imagined it would one day host the game, he said.
“Las Vegas was pretty much set,” said Mr. Newton, who, unlike Carrot Top, knows exactly what his plans are for the weekend. “I think I have pretty good tickets.”
