People Going To The Super Bowl In Las Vegas This Sunday Are In For The Greatest Football Experience Of Their Lives And I Couldn't Be More Jealous.

Ethan Miller. Getty Images.

WSJ - When the NFL awarded a Super Bowl to this shimmering desert town, I hoped the game would deliver some old-time, sequined sizzle. Maybe Wayne Newton crooning a velvety national anthem. A halftime show featuring white tigers and skydiving, mutton-chopped Elvises. The championship Lombardi trophy vanished by the impish Penn & Teller—then later reappearing, hung over, in the Bellagio fountain. 

Hopefully, this year’s postgame goes better. But there’s something end times-ish about this spectacle landing in Vegas—the country’s biggest entertainment product, finally arriving in its zaniest entertainment destination. Not long ago, the NFL was wary of Vegas, fearing the incursion of unsavory gambling types, but the unsavory gambling types have gone legit and national, and better yet, they have tons of advertising money, so everything’s terrific now. 

The truth is, this game can be anywhere, because the Super Bowl is a thunderous branding exercise in which a snack chip can gift-wrap a fake pyramid and the host city takes on a secondary role. The Strip is already rocking, a restaurant table is hard to get, and the Nevada gaming industry is set to make a killing, because I can never remember if I’m supposed to split eights.

Today, Vegas is less about dice and more about luxury shopping, mononymed DJs, “dayclubbing” cabanas and Michelin-starred chefs. I haven’t even gotten to the Sphere, James Dolan’s trippy space orb for graying rock gods. But I’m always looking for a dash of the old Sin City, some Rat Pack ring-a-ding-ding, a little…Rich Little.

Man, does time fly. It feels like just yesterday, I penned this blog about the official NFL announcement that Super Bowl LVIII would take place in Las Vegas in 2024. But that was three years ago now. 

And now we're here. 

Literally.

I got into Vegas and met up with the rest of the company last night at The Dozen Live event which I have to say, our production team, the special events team, our girl Lisa, and Jeff Lowe and Co. knocked out of the park. Seriously. It's not easy to put together large-scale events, especially ones with a ton of moving parts, especially ones that are game shows involving wildcards like Frank The Tank, Brandon Walker, and Dave Portnoy. But they crushed it.

The city is buzzing. 

And it looks amazing.

Being here repeatedly while the strip and its main offshoots were all torn up for F1 construction, which felt like it lasted ten years, and then seeing all the scaffolding and seating that took over everything in the weeks leading up to it, I can honestly say its a night and day difference.

In a good way. 

Aside from CBS setting up camp right in front of the Bellagio fountain on the strip, and having a bunch of their production trailers parked at the entrance and in front, the obstacles are limited. 

And I got from the airport to the hotel in 10 minutes yesterday, as it used to be pre-construction days around here. 

Walking around last night you couldn't go 5 feet without passing by or seeing somebody from the sports media, or a current or former player. Spirits are high, moods are bright, and honestly, the ONLY thing that feels down around here is the temperature. It was 55 degrees yesterday but it felt freezing. 

Other than that, everything is perfect.

Don't listen to Joe Buck's lame ass.

(Sidebar- Joe Buck has done a ton of self-PR and ass-kissing the last couple of years to try and shed his stodgy image, and try to come off as a fun-loving, laid-back guy. I see right through it though. This dire prediction about this weekend in Vegas, is the real him. Never forget he'll always be the guy who went batshit on Randy Moss for one of the best TD celebrations ever.)

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I said it then, and I will say it again, Vegas and the Super Bowl were made for each other. 

The world's biggest entertainment event, in the mecca of entertainment. 

After this Super Bowl, everybody that attends, the entire league, and anybody with a brain pretty much is going to say, "wow. Vegas is the perfect place to do this. It was made to host the Super Bowl. Let's just do it here every year."

You know why?

Because it's true.

I've been to many Super Bowls in many different cities: New Orleans, Miami, Arizona, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Houston, Minneapolis, San Fran, and you want to know who did the best job out of all of those at hosting?

Indianapolis. I kid you not.

Even though I watched Mario Manningham rip New England's heart out right in front of my eyeballs, I still left town on Monday morning blown away at how good a job the city, Lucas Oil, and all the surrounding businesses did hosting. It was like New Orleans in that you could walk around everywhere downtown with drinks, hopping from bar to bar, from event tent to event tent, and everything was condensed in and around the stadium. The hotel zone was right next to the entertainment zone, which was right next to the stadium. You didn't need to take $150 cabs or ubers everywhere, you didn't have to wait in outrageously long lines to get in everywhere, and the locals were nice as could be. 

Houston, Jacksonville, Phoenix are all great places (well maybe not Jacksonville) but way too large and spread out. Took hours and sky high prices to get anywhere. The party situation sucked too, but not as bad as the ones in Minneapolis, San Fran, and Miami. Unless you were a dude who enjoyed hanging out with 99 other dudes for every 1 female, and paying $900 for the privilege to do so. Then they were cool.

Vegas solves all of this.

It's got a great airport, accessible from pretty much everywhere. Also, there is a gigantic private plane space for all the ballers and Taylor Swift to park their PJs all week.

It has more hotel rooms than you know what to do with. All budgets and price ranges too. You fancy? You got the Wynn and Bellagio right there. You not looking to spend a fortune because you'll never be in your room anyway? Excalibur or Luxor are calling your name.

Are restaurants impossible to get into on high-traffic tourist weekends? Never in Vegas. Well always in Vegas, but they're used to high volume weekends every weekend all year, but they have a zillion top-notch ones as opposed to a small handful of good/great ones like other cities. 

Entertainment also needs no discussion here but I'll do it anyway. Las Vegas is the entertainment capital of the world. Plain and simple. More bars, clubs, strip clubs, theatre shows, peep shows, whatever you're into. They have them and they have lots of them. And they're all in a few square miles. Meaning you can walk to everything. Including the stadium.

For a breakdown of all the parties, events, concerts, and tailgates going on this weekend, check out my blog from earlier this week.

Except for maybe SoFi in LA, nothing is on Allegiant's level. Look at this.

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I've now had the luxury of attending two games at Allegiant these past two seasons. Both Patriots at Raiders games. And both Patriots drubbiings.

The first, in a rip-your-heart-out fashion that will live in infamy.

Yes, the Jackobi Myers lateral pick-six game.

And then Josh McDaniels' last victory as a coach, where he beat his teacher for a third time, and I witnessed this clip which still makes me so sad to watch.

Aside from the Patriots losing in embarrassing fashion, my experiences at Allegiant, both of them, could not have been better.

The place is fuckin stunning.

And it's right behind the strip of hotels on the other side of Dean Martin Dr.

Meaning depending how far down the strip you are, it's walkable. At the worst, you're talking a $20 uber.

The rest of this blog is basically going to be me ball-washing the hell out of Las Vegas and Allegiant Stadium. Because frankly, it's the best stadium I've ever stepped foot in or watched a football game in.

And that experience extends from before you even get into the stadium.

For starters, if you're Ubering or cabbing it to the stadium, you know how at most stadiums, the drop-off and pick up location is a mile, if not miles, away? Well, not here. We got dropped off basically curbside on the back end of Al Davis Way, right next to the stadium.

They get you in the stadium very quickly and efficiently. Stadium security is very helpful, plentiful, and polite. 

They also didn't kick my father out for walking through a metal detector with a pocket knife in his pocket. (He doesn't get out much, and he's Italian, so give him a break.)

Walking into the place feels more like you're in a high-end luxury food court than a stadium. The concourse is RIDICULOUS.

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(Faux marble or not, A for effort guys)

The seats are all crazy nice. We're talking new-movie theatre plush, supple leather.

In terms of in game production, as an aficionado, and an integral part of one of the best in-game experiences in sports, at Wrigley Field, (shout out to my Cubs Productions family), the Las Vegas production team nails it.

Pre-game they run an awesome Star Wars Imperial Death March montage which is capped off by showing some lunatic in the black hole decked out in one of those legit, $10,000 Darth Vader costumes. The whole place goes nuts. Very fitting for a place that looks and feels like the Death Star from outside.

(Also, they play the epic "The Autumn Wind is a Pirate" song from NFL Films. As fans enter the stadium which is fucking awesome and gives you chills.)

Speaking of NFL Films, they run the classic NFL Films music during almost every TV timeout, for the first half of it, before switching into pump-up music for the crowd as they come out of commercial. Seriously, it's so well done.

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The sound, and acoustics in the stadium are also incredible.

Granted, the amount of glass they have in the building, especially up top, doesn't help concert performances, but for an NFL game, holy smokes does it sound great. And loud! I'd say the crowd was 50/50 Pats and Raiders fans and the place was booming all game.

There doesn't feel or seem to be a bad seat in the place. Honestly. From everywhere you walk, it's open, and unobstructed views. 

Oh yah, and the suites? 

They look to be in a league of their own.

For my second trip, I was fortunate enough to get hooked up from my friends at The Wynn to get to go down and experience the Wynn Field Club, which sits right behind one of the endzones, on the field, a few feet away from the field.

It is surreal.

This is how close you are to the action.

And these are what the amenities are like.

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You feel like you're in The Wynn, not a football stadium.

The view is insane. And the shit you can hear on the field is wild.

And they have full-service, high-end premium liquor and beer bars everywhere. There has to be like 15 of them scattered around down there.

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And, of course, the beautiful Wynn ladies take care of everything.

The food menu is also ridiculous. I'm talking sushi, lobster rolls, gyros, steak and cheeses, giant nachos, pizzas, everything you can think of and it wasn't shitty aramark stadium food either. It was top-notch Wynn quality stuff.

If you have stupid money, and you really wanna go nuts, you can splurge for your very own table. 

The prices for regular season games are nuts, so it's not really that shocking that these babies are going for $700,000 now on Super Bowl Sunday. 

Yah, $700k.

Crazy town. Can only imagine the characters that are going to be down there Sunday. Hope we get some visuals.

If you're down there, you'll also be a few feet away from Kaskade (Chicago guy, nbd), who will be the first Super Bowl in-game DJ ever. (Replacing Tiesto who had to back out due to a family emergency).

(Humble brag sidebar- I actually got to DJ the Minneapolis Super Bowl pregame with Kelly Clarkson a few years ago when Nick Folk ripped our hearts out)

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Everybody getting to go to this game Sunday, enjoy every minute of it. You're in for a treat. Have the best time. Go Niners.

p.s. - of all the Super Bowls I've been lucky to attend, nothing still beats the Malcolm Butler game. 28-3 came close, but I have never and will never experience a swing of emotions like we did in Phoenix that day.