COUNTDOWN TO KICKOFF

With one year left until Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, we hit the road to accept a ceremonial football—and brought one of our own.

If it was not already apparent that Las Vegas is ready to host our first Super Bowl, we drove the point home in February by arriving in Phoenix with a 13-foot, 1,200-pound football on wheels. LVCVACEO Steve Hill, Raiders president Sandra Douglass Morgan, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo all attended the ceremonial football handoff from Phoenix to Las Vegas and the unveiling of our “Super Ball.” Our delegation including Hill, Brian Yost, Lisa Motley, and Kate Wik was joined by recognizable Vegas ambassadors Carrot Top, a Cosmopolitan mixologist, and a Fabulous Las Vegas sign, promoting not just the game but our destination. 

What the world saw was the effortless excitement of a Vegas production. What it didn’t see: the years of tireless preparation, construction, and negotiation that led to the handoff, as well as a week of nonstop meetings and research surrounding it. “While we were in Arizona, we met with the NFL creative team, Arizona host committee, NFL’s finance and marketing teams, the NFL Foundation, community relations and legal teams,” says Lisa Motley, LVCVA’s senior director of sports and special events. And those meetings only scratched the surface. They did a site visit of State Farm Stadium, experienced indoor and outdoor fan fests, and were joined by more than 20 representatives from our metro police and fire departments to meet with Homeland Security, the CIA, and Secret Service in preparation. The exhaustive meeting schedule was part of our commitment to learn from host sites.