Strip, stadium buzz with energy
Football fans flock to Vegas for epic party
As the city hosted its first Super Bowl on Sunday, the Las Vegas Review-journal sent a team of reporters out to capture all the news and celebrations. Here are some of the stories they encountered.
Taylor who?
Jerry Sapp, 57, of Columbia, Missouri, walked along the Strip outside The Venetian on Sunday morning sporting an olive-drab top emblazoned with a Chiefs logo.
“We rented a cabana at Circa to watch the game,” Sapp said, peering ahead for his group. He has “been coming to Vegas for decades” and said he would be joined by more than a dozen other Chiefs fans in his cabana later in the day.
Asked who would win and whether Taylor Swift would factor into the final score, Sapp shouted: “Chiefs!”
Then he feigned confusion. “Taylor who?”
— Peter S. Levitt
‘Vegas is made for this’
Outside Harrah’s on the Strip on Sunday morning, Raymond Takash sported a red Brock Purdy jersey.
Takash, 41, hails from Los Angeles. He, his wife and his friends checked into The Venetian on Friday.
“The Super Bowl should be here every year,” he said, taking in the scene. “Vegas is made for this.”
He expects the Niners to win a close game but added that Travis Kelce may find an extra spark in girlfriend Taylor Swift.
“She’s good for the game,” Takash said. “I’m not a hater.”
— Peter S. Levitt
These fans got free tickets
On a crisp and sunny Super Bowl morning, fans started trickling into Allegiant Stadium, including Jason and Heather Massoth of St. Louis, Missouri.
The couple got free tickets through Jason’s job, and they would be sitting about 25 rows up from the field.
Jason Massoth checked how much he would have had to pay for the tickets if they weren’t free.
“They were ten grand each,” he said. “Stupid.”
The conversation then turned to the game.
The Massoths, who are Chiefs fans, felt bad for all the 49ers fans who had been showing up in droves to Las Vegas. They predicted a blowout win.
“I don’t know why so many 49ers fans are here,” Heather Massoth said with a laugh. “They’re wasting their time!”
— Brett Clarkson
Representing Las Vegas
Mary Kay Lein was one of hundreds of volunteers working for the Super Bowl. She’s also a retired Clark County School District teacher with more than 30 years of teaching experience.
Hours before the game, a smiling Lein greeted fans, passed out free stickers and buttons, and offered to take their pictures as they held a Nevada-themed Super Bowl frame.
The volunteer position didn’t pay more than “a bottle of water and a bag of chips,” but Lein said she has loved her four-hour shifts and meeting people from all over.
“It’s something to do,” she said. “It’s pretty cool to represent your city, to be a hostess to your city.” — Ricardo Torres-cortez
A culinary distinction
Inside the Black Tap pub just off The Venetian sportsbook, San Francisco fans outnumbered Kansas City fans around noontime.
At least that’s what bartender Michael Tynsdale, 27, thought.
Tynsdale was born and raised in Las Vegas.
He didn’t care too much about who would win the game. But in terms of the crowd’s culinary choices, Tynsdale noted an interesting trend.
“They order a lot of salad,” he said, pointing to a gaggle of Niners fans.
— Peter S. Levitt
‘Dream come true’
There was a party-like atmosphere at the Kansas City Chiefs fan area outside Allegiant Stadium, where hundreds of fans were gathering and hanging out, drinking beer and taking photos with the Chiefs Cheerleaders.
Luis Morales, 41, and Mauricio Hernandez, 39, traveled from Mexico City for the Super Bowl. They said they each paid $6,500 for their seats.
Morales, a Chiefs fan, was attending his third Super Bowl, while Hernandez, a 49ers fan, was attending his first.
“Awesome,” Hernandez said about the atmosphere outside the stadium. “The American football culture in the U.S.A., I love it. For us, this is a dream come true.”
— Brett Clarkson
Slider taste-off
At Guy’s Flavortown Tailgate on Super Bowl Sunday 2024 in Las Vegas, famed restaurateur Guy Fieri and football legend Eli Manning took to the stage in the early afternoon to compete in a slider taste off judged by four fans.
Fieri’s mac and cheese slider and Manning’s pretzel slider tied with two votes each. After that, Fieri and Manning autographed footballs, then threw them into the crowd to the veterans, first responders, graduates of UNLV — where Fieri went to college — and others. Two fans almost came to blows over a football they both caught.
— Johnathan Wright
Enforcement lax
Enforcement of an ordinance banning stopping and standing on Strip pedestrian bridges seemed lax Sunday afternoon.
On a South strip bridge, a man with a small table was encouraging a group of about 15 people to play a version of three-card monte with bottle caps.
Farther down the bridge, a man was selling Chiefs and 49ers merchandise off of a folding table. Even farther down the bridge, a group of men brandished signs protesting circumcision.
— Taylor Avery