Raiders Stadium To Be Site Of Conference Title Tilt
Looking to make a national splash at its media days to try and take some attention away from the SEC, ACC and Big 10, the Pac-12 conference announced that it will be moving its football championship game to Las Vegas.
Specifically, the 2020 and 2021 games will be played at the Las Vegas Raiders stadium, now under construction. This year’s game will remain at Levis Stadium in Santa Clara, CA, home of he San Francisco 49ers and the site of the conference title game since its inception in 2014.
The Pac-12 already plays its basketball tournament in Vegas.
It’s a good move. Levis Stadium is subject to wet and damp weather in December. Plus, attendance at the games has been poor at best, and Las Vegas is a destination city with all it has to offer a traveler.
Of course, the teams make a big difference in attendance, more so than the city. USC and UCLA travel well and if Oregon is on the upswing (we’ll find out this year) the the Ducks will loyally follow their team to Vegas.
Utah – picked to win this year’s conference title – Stanford and Washington don’t have the die-hard fan bases to fill up a stadium. Arizona and Arizona State have “fun fans,” who might travel to Vegas for one year if their traditional mediocre teams were to play for the title, but not on a consistent year-to-year basis.
It is also possible that USC or UCLA fans – Trojans supporters in particular – would pass on Vegas if their team has a shot at the Rose Bowl. They would likely bypass a trip to Sin City for a day at the Rose Bowl.
Don’t expect cheap hotel rooms if you’re a fan. The game will be in early December, the same time as the National Finals Rodeo, and in this supply-and-demand town, hotel room rates will be high.
Still, the Pac-12 did something the other conferences did not: it created a positive national news headline during its preseason media days.
#LasVegasPac12
#Pac12
#Pac12Championship
#LasVegasRaiders
Leave a Reply