“The north side of the building has become one of the more pressure points in the guest experience.” Sandra Douglass Morgan, president of the Las Vegas Raiders, told the Stadium Authority that on August 20. “That infrastructure is stretched to capacity.”
On Wednesday the authority answered with money. It approved $75 million in public funds toward a $158 million upgrade to ease the way into the north entrance of Allegiant Stadium, the 65,000-seat home of the Raiders. The Raiders will pay the rest. The public share comes from surplus room tax revenue.
Douglass Morgan attended Wednesday’s meeting but did not address the board, and she did not speak to The Associated Press afterward.
What the money buys
Many fans walk to the stadium from the Las Vegas Strip, crossing a nearby bridge. The new entry is meant to give them a more direct route by keeping them on an elevated walkway. The funds will go toward pedestrian and event decks, a plaza and transportation improvements.
Construction is not expected to start until the Raiders’ season ends. The goal is to finish in late 2028, or at least before the 2029 Super Bowl at Allegiant.
Why now
Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, called the stadium “a critical community asset.” Tourism, he said, “is driving tourism right now more than ever at a time we need to drive tourism.”
Hill said the surplus revenue could not simply go to paying down the room tax and the bonds that fund the stadium, for legal and technical reasons. He also pointed to the Raiders’ larger share of the bill. “The Raiders will be responsible for the maintenance of that, and it frankly protects the $750 million public investment that has already been made,” he said.
The stadium opened in 2020 at a cost of $2 billion, $750 million of it public. It hosted the Super Bowl in 2024, and this season’s college football national championship game will be played there. The Final Four is scheduled for 2028. UNLV football and major concerts also use the building.
Competition is coming, Hill said. A new venue has opened in Buffalo, New York, and others are planned or expected in the Chicago area, Denver, Washington, D.C., and Nashville, Tennessee. “They are going to look to compete for events we have been very fortunate to have here,” he said.
