Allegiant Stadium ‘perfect stage’ for Super Bowl sellout

Las Vegas’ first Super Bowl lived up to the billing Sunday.

An announced crowd of 61,629 fans filled Allegiant Stadium for the Chiefs’ 25-22 overtime victory against the 49ers, making the championship game a sellout.

“That stadium could’ve been sold many times over,” said Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s executive vice president of club business, international and league events.

Allegiant Stadium has 62,500 fixed seats for a Raiders’ regular-season game and can hold 65,000 fans when standing room spaces are accounted for. It was touted to be able to expand to 72,000 for Super Bowls.

O’Reilly still said the capacity set for Sunday’s game was perfect.

Extra room needed to be created for the 165 cameras used on the KLAS-8 broadcast and the increased amount of media members in attendance.

“We thought this was a great capacity where we could create the best possible experience,” O’Reilly said. “This is a bucket-list event, so we thought we used all of the elements of that stadium to both make sure we had the right components for media and otherwise and a great fans’ experience.”

Super Bowl 58’s capacity was the smallest in the event’s history, outside of the COVID-19 restricted 2021 Super Bowl. But O’Reilly said there is no minimum capacity required for a stadium to host the event.

“There is no 70,000 number that needs to be hit for the Super Bowl,” O’Reilly said. “It’s about finding that right stadium, that right venue and this was the perfect stage, at the perfect moment. I think it showed very well for the world last night.”

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.