LAS VEGAS — Steve Hill, president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), is gushing over the latest star turn to hit his city.

In the past two years, Vegas has welcomed Taylor Swift and Beyonce to perform at the 65,000-seater Allegiant Stadium, as well as hosting its first Formula One race and Super Bowl LVIII. This weekend, it is the turn of Lionel Messi.

The World Cup winner’s Inter Miami will play at Allegiant Stadium on Saturday against reigning three-time Liga MX champions Club America.

“Messi is clearly the biggest name in the sport,” says Hill. “Having him come is just like having The Beatles come or Elvis (Presley) come. He is a phenomenon. To be able to have him in town is a thrill and we’re a city that gets thrilled a lot. He’s the king right now.”

The match itself is of little significance, a pre-season exhibition notable only for Javier Mascherano’s debut as Inter Miami’s head coach. But it is the latest stop of the Messi roadshow and his first appearance here at either club or international level.

Inter Miami will hope their visit — followed by games in Honduras, Panama and Peru — goes better than their attempt to maximise Messi’s commercial pull during last winter’s pre-season. He underwhelmed supporters in Saudi Arabia by appearing only as a substitute and then provoked an international incident by failing to play in an exhibition match in Hong Kong.

According to Andy Gorchov, general manager of Allegiant Stadium, Saturday’s match will bring in between 40,000- to 45,000 people, short of a sell-out, but a strong turnout for a non-competitive game where tickets are priced at a low of $67 (£55) by official vendor Ticketmaster.

Club America are the most popular Mexican team in the United States. Pedro Garza de Angoitia, director of internationalisation and new business at the club, tells The Athletic his team have “over 15 million declared fans” in the U.S., while American television figures for the team’s games within the U.S. often usurp figures recorded by MLS and many English Premier League clubs. In Las Vegas, 34.1 per cent of the population, according to government data, are Hispanic or Latino, while it is also expected that Mexican supporters will travel from neighboring California and Arizona.

But it is Messi who many will pay to watch, and his arrival represents the latest in a slew of high-profile sporting events that have come to redefine Las Vegas, diversifying its economy beyond gambling.

Hill says: “Thirty-seven years ago, when I moved here, gambling winnings were the primary revenue for the properties. They gave away rooms. We had … 99¢ shrimp cocktails and 99¢ T-Bone steaks. It was, ‘Hey, let’s get everybody here. Then let’s hope they lose enough money at the tables… in order to help the city grow.’

“For the integrated resorts, gambling still matters. And the gaming win is a significant component to their revenue. But it’s not anywhere near half of it now for most of them.”

In a startlingly short period of time, Las Vegas has become a sports city — with Messi the latest star in town.

Las Vegas has added three major league teams in the past decade. The NHL introduced the Golden Knights in 2017, before the NFL’s Raiders moved from Oakland, while MLB’s Oakland Athletics are aiming to relocate to a new ballpark on the iconic Strip by 2028. In the WNBA, the Las Vegas Aces arrived in 2018 from San Antonio, winning back-to-back championships in 2022 and 2023. A fight sports mecca, Las Vegas hosted the highest-grossing UFC event ever (a reported $22m) in September at the Sphere, selling out a crowd of 16,024.

The developments can be attributed to a destigmatization of sports betting, now legal in some form in 38 states, as well as Washington, D.C., according to the American Gaming Association. As sports betting spread across America, leagues dropped their resistance to embracing Las Vegas. In the early 2000s, for example, the city was even prevented from running a tourism advert during the Super Bowl, at a time when Nevada was the only state offering legal sports betting.

The law change explains, at least partially, why teams have come but the willingness of the city itself to dive head-first into hosting big-time sports also signals a shift in behavior by those who gamble. The legalization of sports betting means that the need to go to Las Vegas has lessened, as locations spring up across the U.S., but the shift to online betting has also had an impact. Jeff Sherman, VP of Risk at the Superbook Nevada, told The Athletic that 60 per cent of bets posted are now via their app, compared to in-person.

As such, Las Vegas cannot realistically rely on retail premises alone to drive its economy. Indeed, Hill explains that his city has 42million visits per year, generated by around 25million people but, he warns “we need new things for them to come and see and do.”

Steve Hill believes Messi’s star power makes him a perfect fit for Las Vegas (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

He explains: “We are not a monopoly on sports betting or on gambling at all anymore. So we have a need to continue to expand our offerings to keep attracting our customers.

“It’s Las Vegas. There’s no city in the world that has the ability to treat 60,000 people like VIPs at the same time. The scale that we have, it elevates events.”

Do not expect the rush to stop here. The NCAA Final Four is in the diary for 2028, while an NBA expansion team appears to be a matter of time. Basketball has plenty of previous in Las Vegas, notably the NBA Summer League, the 2023 In-Season Tournament (semifinals and championship game) and three WNBA All-Star Games since 2019. NBA commissioner Adam Silver stated early last year on The Pat McAfee Show that “Vegas is definitely on our list for expansion.”

“There are several groups in the city (of Las Vegas) that are very interested in being a part of that conversation and I know they all feel like that should happen sometime that’s measured in months and not years,” says Hill. “But the NBA has not identified a time frame at this point.”

The Super Bowl in 2024, he says, represented “the biggest economic impact that we’ve ever had from an event”, bringing in more than $1billion in estimated additional revenue above what would be a typical full weekend.

Harry Reid International Airport screened a record of almost 104,000 passengers in a single day on the Monday after the game, while Nevada sportsbooks, boosted by visitors, claimed a record handle of $185.6m in Super Bowl bets.

Little wonder that Las Vegas is seeking a repeat, boosted by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s encouraging remarks. Hill says: “The Kansas City Chiefs were there, so Taylor Swift was there. The (NFL) are certainly going to come back. We think it’s a plus or minus, end of the decade kind of thing — five to seven years, something like that we hope.”

Perhaps one surprise is that Las Vegas will not form part of FIFA’s major incursions into North America in the next 18 months, with first the revamped Club World Cup and then the 2026 men’s World Cup taking place across Canada, Mexico and the U.S.

Messi and Inter Miami are playing pre-season games across North, Central and South America (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

Allegiant Stadium hosted three games at Copa America last summer, and is a host venue for the CONCACAF Gold Cup this summer. Hill explains that FIFA’s hosting requirements were an obstacle, despite the city and stadium giving serious consideration to being involved. Allegiant’s field dimensions are smaller than FIFA’s minimum requirements, meaning seats would need to be removed to package the stadium in a manner befitting a World Cup.

GO DEEPER

Why Copa America is being played on small pitches – and what it means

“From our estimation, it would have taken the stadium out of commission for a total of 15 months over a 21-month period,” he says.

As such, the sacrifice was not worthwhile — because concerts and other live events matter to Vegas, too. In the coming months alone, it will host AC/DC, Shakira, Post Malone, Coldplay and Kendrick Lamar, as well as Wrestlemania and a rugby league extravaganza that will see four games in a single day, including teams from Australia, New Zealand and England. Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves of the English Super League will play a regular-season game in the U.S. for the first time. Hill says it would be “very appealing” to host a European soccer regular season league game, such as the Premier League or La Liga, in Las Vegas, but added he is not aware of any “serious discussions.”

Gorchov says Las Vegas is hoping to be a stop-off for fans who embark on road trips or multi-state visits to the World Cup, with similar aspirations of being a “great neighbour” to Los Angeles at the Olympics in 2028.

Las Vegas also wants to be involved either in hosting warm-up matches for some of the 48 teams competing at the men’s World Cup, or as a training base for teams competing in nearby states, although it may be a brave nation that positions their team in Vegas during a World Cup considering the extra-curricular activities on offer. Hill says the question of risk for athletes does still come up in hosting conversations, most notably when Las Vegas hosts college sports, such as the Kick Off Classic headlined by University of Southern Carolina (USC) and Louisiana State University (LSU) in September 2024.

Las Vegas looks to be in contention to host the Super Bowl again (Michael Owens/Getty Images)

He says: “If you bring 18, 19 or 20-year-old’s here, they’re not allowed to participate yet in Las Vegas, but it doesn’t mean they’re not going to try. There’s some concern there, but you can go to pretty much any city you want and get in trouble. Trouble that we have in Las Vegas is not unique to our city.”

In Las Vegas, there are still hopes MLS may one day expand there. According to an MLS official, who spoke anonymously as they were not authorised to speak publicly on the matter, over a dozen groups since 2007 have looked at bringing a team to Las Vegas. The closest was an ownership group led by Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris, who also own the English Premier League team Aston Villa. They went so far as to trademark the name Las Vegas Villains but a deterrent appeared to be cost, with a $500m expansion fee accompanied by an expectation to build a soccer-specific stadium, which would also require a retractable roof to shield players from the summer desert heat.

Plenty of people within MLS expected Vegas to become the league’s 30th team, only to be beaten to the punch by San Diego, who will launch next month for the 2025 campaign. MLS is not in active discussions over a further expansion team, although Bill Foley, owner of NHL outfit the Golden Knights and Bournemouth of the Premier League, has also previously explored an MLS team in Las Vegas.

Hill insists Vegas “is a soccer town”; already home to the United Soccer League’s Las Vegas Lights.

“There are Premier League fans, La Liga fans; it’s a broad cross-section,” he adds. “What Vegas brings to these teams in the professional leagues is a much more global view.

“As Vegas continues to grow, there’s real interest from the community in having a (MLS) team here but it’s a little bit harder to find the key that unlocks that door than it is for some of the of the other leagues.”

In the meantime, locals and tourists alike will make do with a glimpse of Messi this weekend.

(Top photo: Megan Briggs/Getty Images)