Graney: With Super Bowl in ‘24, good old days have only begun

It was December 2021 and inside a meeting room at a stylish hotel in Irving, Texas, when Raiders owner Mark Davis uttered those memorable words.

“The first thing I’d like to say is, ‘Las Vegas, the Super Bowl is coming.’ It’s the most valuable asset the NFL has.”

It’s a lot closer now.

Believe it: Once the final down is played at Super Bowl LVII between the Chiefs and Eagles on Sunday in Arizona, the clock for next year’s game of Roman numerals at Allegiant Stadium will begin ticking.

It is a reminder of how Las Vegas has become such a sports mecca for major events.

We want them. They want to be here.

Yes to sports betting

It heightened with the arrival of the NFL and the opening of the stadium, this voracious hunger of others to bring their sports business to Las Vegas.

It really began with the NFL losing its sanctimonious stance that a line divided the league and sports gambling, that Las Vegas being home to a team or things such as the draft or Pro Bowl or Super Bowl was not in its best interest.

You see how different things are now.

Think about it: There was a time when the NFL wouldn’t allow Las Vegas-based companies to include images of gaming if they chose such a marketing strategy as a TV commercial during the Super Bowl.

Or when nearly 100 NFL players were scheduled to attend a fantasy football convention — hosted by then-Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo — before the league stepped in and banned players from attending because it was being held at a casino property.

Let’s hear it for the good ol’ hypocritical days.

Eventually, however, the NFL realized it wouldn’t be a shred of itself without sports betting.

Then everything changed.

For the sport. The league. This city.

“Our expectation, after welcoming professional sports and opening the stadium, is we’ve gotten to the point where we expect (major events) want to come,” said Steve Hill, CEO and president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “We feel confident that we can meet all their expectations or exceed them more and more. Any type of event you can think of, we’ve had some level of conversation about.”

Hill’s take: It’s about what the Golden Knights and Raiders and NASCAR and UFC — all of which have been around for a few years or much longer — have done that drives others to town.

Those happenings have been so successful that it translates into interest and attendance and spending. The financial aspects are just better than events being staged elsewhere.

So if you’re the NCAA, you bring a West Regional of the NCAA tournament to Las Vegas in March and a Final Four in 2028. You host nine other championships before 2026.

Here comes F1

But no event beyond the Super Bowl — and perhaps as much — will draw more interest to the city in the coming months than the return of Formula One after a 40-year sabbatical.

The world’s most highly developed race cars will jet up and down a 17-turn, 3.08-mile circuit Nov. 16 to 18 that will encompass the iconic Strip. It will be like New Year’s Eve at breakneck speed.

Numbers: There could be as many as 120,000 tickets sold and another 20,000-plus for a watch party around the fan activation area on the west side of the Strip. The international viewership rivals that of a Super Bowl.

“If you haven’t been to an F1 event, it’s hard to wrap your head around what it looks like,” Hill said. “It’s not only spectacular, but huge. Really, literally, the eyes of the world are going to be on Las Vegas in November and again (next) February for the Super Bowl.”

Speaking of which, it’s almost that time …

“I was telling someone that it’s nice to be on the clock,” Hill said. “We’ve done work, but now it gets real.”

Believe it.

Ed Graney is a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing and can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.