Las Vegas is Not Iowa

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When compared to that catastrophe known as the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Super Bowl has been a walk in the park.  So, it’s been easy to hide all the ways the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) bungled this event and why its CEO, Steve Hill needs to be fired.

But let’s skip over that for now and enjoy the current circus in town, known as the NFL.  The National Football League and how they keep treating Las Vegas as if we were just a bunch of Iowa farmers.  

Oscar Was Right

But first, a flashback.  In the early 2000s, Las Vegas’s best mayor ever, Mayor Oscar Goodman (former mob attorney), got into a media war with the NFL over how they did not let Las Vegas market itself during the Super Bowl. In fact, they did not allow us to use the word “Super Bowl”. So, we went with “The Big Game”. 

Why didn’t the NFL allow Las Vegas to spend millions of dollars on advertising during the Big Game? Because according to the NFL, Las Vegas was the devil’s playground.  Something a squeaky-clean organization like the NFL could not support (sarcasm).  We had the ultimate sin, gambling.  Worse yet, we allowed betting on sports (oh my!).   

Oscar pointed out the NFL’s hypocrisy to the world media.  He stated that if it weren’t for Las Vegas and our betting parlors, the NFL would have gone bankrupt decades ago.  That is a point well taken, and he was 100% accurate. 

As Oscar pointed out, why else does the NFL release injury updates on Monday after a game? Answer: Releasing that information publicly on Monday, only serves one purpose. It impacts the betting lines and odds—you know, how people bet on the NFL.   

So now, instead of telling the NFL to go pound dirt, the LVCVA takes $60 million from the Room Tax slush fund, gives it to them, and then gives them the run of the city. Free of charge. Steve Hill probably ordered an extra case of Chapstick for the occasion.

Las Vegas Isn’t Iowa

The NFL, as they have done since the start of planning for this event, has treated Las Vegas as if we were just a bunch of hicks. It was as if Las Vegas was not used to having such a prestigious organization in town and they needed to show us hicks how they do it in the big leagues! Pay me $60 million, and I will go anywhere you want me to!

They keep telling us how much this event will mean to Las Vegas in terms of international exposure and prestige—as if anyone outside the West Coast has ever heard of our little hamlet!  

As a reference point: When the Chinese government surveyed its people about traveling outside their country before COVID-19, they asked them what three countries they would like to visit.  The most popular “country” was Las Vegas! 

The NFL, in some of their interviews and press releases, keeps stressing how important this is and how “they” have it all figured out because they have done this over fifty times.  Yes, fifty times in 50 years! Oh My! Impressive (sarcasm)

The NFL talks about the security it takes to host such an event, and they talk as if they are here to teach our Podunk police force how to do it. Listening to them, I thought this was Mayberry, and Sheriff Andy Taylor was riding along, taking notes from them on how to do real police security work. 

We Do It Best

If the NFL didn’t know, Las Vegas truly is an international tourist destination. Our security people here are some of the best in the business. They always work together and share what they know with the others involved.

Not only do we have the best in the business (resort K9 teams often beat out police K9 teams in competitions), but we also have the best security technology available outside the Military complex.

The FBI, Homeland Security, and Las Vegas Police (METRO) work so closely with each other that they are probably on each other’s Christmas card list. They forget more than your “experts” ever knew.

Trying to say you are doing it better because you have experience with 50 such games is just another insult to the people who live and work here.

Securing the city and the event location for over 200,000 people is nothing new. It’s almost a weekly occurrence. To think otherwise is just wrong and, again, insulting.

It’s pretty much the same security teams and setups as we have for New Year’s Eve, NASCAR, CES, and many other major events.  Maybe the other events are not as large as they are for this, but it’s not earth-shattering or out of the ordinary to have them working close together as the NFL seems to think it is.

I am sure all three agencies were “plugged into” the NFL’s security network long before anyone from the NFL even showed up in Las Vegas. Actually, it was probably the other way around. They had to plug in and catch up with our security network.

To have the NFL talking heads tell us how much Las Vegas will benefit from having this game here. Maybe we might have even proven to them that we are smart enough and to imply that because of this game, we may have learned enough about hosting such a prestigious event that we may be allowed (if we pay the bribe) to host another one soon. This is truly an insult to the city and the people who work and live here.

For your information, on a typical Super Bowl weekend, there are over 300,000 people here, regardless of where the game is played. So hosting the “Big Game” here means we will have 350,000 people instead of 300,000!

So, to the NFL, this is Las Vegas, not Iowa.  We know what we are doing. Please try a little harder to respect the people of this great city, and we might let you come back again. And after the game, you don’t have to return LVCVA CEO Steve Hill. You can keep him.

Final Note

To the great people of Iowa, please, I mean no disrespect. If it makes you feel any better, I’m from Minnesota (no jokes, please).  I just needed to use your wonderful state as a reference for the points I made here. 

Last update on 2025-06-03 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API