Allegiant Stadium

About

Allegiant Stadium is a multi-purpose indoor stadium in Paradise, Nevada, United States, southwest of adjacent Las Vegas. Opened in 2020, it is the home field of the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL) and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Rebels college football team. The stadium also hosts the Vegas Kickoff Classic in early September and the Las Vegas Bowl in December. The stadium hosted SummerSlam in 2021 which was the first live event with fans in attendance to be held at the stadium since its opening the year prior, Super Bowl LVIII in 2024, WrestleMania 41 in 2025 and WrestleMania 42 in 2026 and will host the College Football Playoff National Championship in 2027. It will also host Super Bowl LXIII in 2029. Allegiant Stadium is located on about 62 acres (0.25 km2) of land west of Mandalay Bay at Russell Road and Hacienda Avenue, between Polaris Avenue and Dean Martin Drive, just west of Interstate 15. At $1.9 billion, it is among the most expensive stadiums in the world. Construction of the stadium began on November 13, 2017. Allegiant Stadium is indoors with a translucent roof made of ETFE, allowing for climate control and natural sunlight. The stadium has been nicknamed the "Death Star" in reference to the Star Wars franchise.

For Allegiant Stadium, Raiders owner Mark Davis retained the same architecture firm, MANICA Architecture, that had designed the previously proposed Carson Stadium near Los Angeles. Davis retained much of the look from the Carson stadium because he "fell in love with the overall design of it". Allegiant Stadium is a ten-level domed stadium featuring an ETFE roof, silver and black exterior with light-up strips installed by YESCO, a 275-foot (84 m) media mesh video screen facing Interstate 15, and large retractable curtain-like side windows facing the Las Vegas Strip. The north endzone area in front of the retractable windows contains the Al Davis memorial torch, a large 85-foot (26 m) torch that houses a flame in honor of Al Davis, the late longtime owner of the Raiders. In 2019, the torch was reported to be the largest 3D printed object in the world. Las Vegas-based artist Michael Godard was commissioned by the Raiders to oversee the planning and execution of the artwork displayed at the stadium. The stadium has a roll-in natural Bermuda grass field similar to the one at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, which is primarily used for NFL games. The main advantages of such a configuration are that it allows the natural playing surface to be exposed to natural sunlight when not in use and allows other events to be held at the facility without any risk of damage to the grass. Unlike the Arizona facility, Allegiant Stadium also has an artificial turf field, which is primarily used for college football games. This design was chosen because UNLV prefers to play on an artificial turf surface, and also due to concerns that use of the grass field by two teams would cause excessive wear to the playing surface. The artificial turf is placed directly on the stadium's concrete floor, and is rolled up and stored under the stadium when the tray is rolled in. There are 2,700 parking spots surrounding the stadium and 6,000 in proximity to it. More than 35,000 parking spaces are located within a mile of Allegiant Stadium.

In January 2016, reports emerged that Las Vegas Sands was considering developing a stadium in conjunction with Majestic Realty and UNLV, on a 42-acre (17 ha) site on Tropicana Avenue owned by UNLV. UNLV had been in the market for a new stadium to replace Sam Boyd Stadium since at least 2011. Raiders owner Mark Davis visited Las Vegas on January 29, 2015, to tour the site and meet with Sands chairman Sheldon Adelson and other local figures. The Raiders, who had been trying to get a new stadium built for the team since the 1980s, had just missed out on relocating to Los Angeles that same month with the Rams and Chargers moving into a new stadium in Inglewood, California, and were at an impasse in Oakland. In order for the team to relocate to Las Vegas, a new stadium was required, since Sam Boyd Stadium was undersized for the NFL and there were no other professional-caliber stadiums in Nevada. The Raiders had previously played a preseason game in Las Vegas at Cashman Field against the Houston Oilers during the 1964 American Football League (AFL) preseason and owner Al Davis considered relocating the team there. On March 21, 2016, when asked about Las Vegas, Davis said, "I think the Raiders like the Las Vegas plan," and "it's a very very very intriguing and exciting plan." Davis also met with Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval about the stadium plan. On April 1, 2016, Davis met with UNLV officials and toured Sam Boyd Stadium to evaluate whether it could serve as a temporary home for the team. On April 28, 2016, Davis said he wanted to move the Raiders to Las Vegas and pledged $500 million toward constructing the proposed $1.4-billion domed stadium. "Together we can turn the Silver State into the silver and black state," Davis said. In the spring of 2016, the board of directors of Las Vegas Sands rejected Adelson's stadium proposal. Adelson decided to move ahead with the stadium as an individual investment, pledging $650 million of his personal wealth to the project. The viability of the Tropicana Avenue site was called into serious question in June 2016, when Southwest Airlines objected to the location because its proximity to the northern end of one of Harry Reid International Airport's runways could negatively affect the safety and capacity of air traffic at the airport. The list of potential locations soon expanded to nine candidates, including the sites of the Wild Wild West casino, the Wynn golf course, the Riviera casino, the Las Vegas Festival Grounds, and Cashman Center. By September, the list was narrowed to two possibilities: the Bali Hai Golf Club, south of Mandalay Bay, and a vacant lot on Russell Road, just west of Interstate 15. On August 25, 2016, the Raiders filed a trademark application for "Las Vegas Raiders" on the same day renderings of a proposed stadium design were released. On September 15, 2016, the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee unanimously voted to recommend and approve $750 million for the Las Vegas stadium plan. Majestic Realty revealed in October 2016 that it had withdrawn from the stadium project. In October 2016, Sandoval called a special session of the Nevada Legislature to consider the stadium and other tourism-related proposals. The funding bill for the stadium was approved by a 16–5 vote in the Senate and by 28–13 in the Assembly, and was signed into law by Sandoval on October 17. The bill allowed Clark County to increase its hotel tax to raise the $750 million in funding.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.