Ten years ago, the idea of Las Vegas having a professional football team was unthinkable. Now, the city is home to three franchises and is hosting the Super Bowl for the first time. What changed to make Sin City one of the biggest sports havens in the country?

While many of the fans making the trek from the famous Las Vegas Strip are local, more than half are not. Pro football, it seems, is now a part of the Vegas tourist experience. When local officials agreed to pay $750 million of the stadium bill, they expected a benefit of 450,000 visitors a year. The reality has been nearly double that. The arrival of the Super Bowl on Feb. 11 alone is expected to bring 330,000 fans.

Michael Green is the head coach of history at UNLV, the perfect guy for a crash course in Las Vegas sports history 101.

All the familiar, time-tested sights greet visitors to this glitzy desert oasis. One pyramid-shaped hotel-casino. Another meant to mythically transport guests to Venice. A giant replica of the Statue of Liberty. But the 2024 edition of Las Vegas also includes a once-unthinkable sports presence.

Tuesday was the presidential primary day in Nevada. Voters headed to nearly 130 polling sites in Clark County alone.

"Cheap" and the Super Bowl don't exactly go together. Every year, as soon as two teams clinch their spots with victories in the respective conference-title games, thoughts turn to money. A lot of it.

A meeting scheduled in the 1980s between the NFL and sportsbook directors sparked hope in Las Vegas that their relationship would soon take a much more positive turn after decades during which the league kept the city at arm’s length.

In late 2002, a marketing firm trying to reinvent Las Vegas believed it had captured the allure of the city in a commercial worthy of the Super Bowl.