Before Allegiant Stadium opened its doors in 2020, UNLV and the Las Vegas Raiders had a rental agreement in place for the university to play their home football games there.
Currently, with an average attendance of 22,000 fans per game, the university is paying $350,000 to the Las Vegas Raiders for the operating cost of the stadium. This amounted to approximately $2.1 million for UNLV’s 2022 season. After the 2022 season concluded, UNLV’s gross profit was $15.1 million, with total operating expenditures costing $13.7 million. UNLV turned a profit of $1.4 million.
During the 2018 season when UNLV played at Sam Boyd Stadium, their game day operating cost for the stadium was $560,000 for the whole season (6 home games played). However, they still incurred a net loss of $2.8 million, after all the total expenditures for the season as reported in the university’s 2019 statement of revenue and expenses submitted to the Nevada System of Higher Education. UNLV signed a non-compete rental agreement with the Las Vegas Raiders, which indefinitely shut down Sam Boyd Stadium. The Raiders will compensate UNLV with $3.5 million over the course of 10 years.
In essence, this means the Las Vegas Raiders are paying $35 million to the university over 10 years for them not to utilize Sam Boyd Stadium. This results in UNLV football turning a total profit of $4.9 million for the 2022 season.
Playing at Allegiant Stadium has greatly improved UNLV athletics.
Currently, UNLV football is 5-1 and are at the top of the Mountain West Conference. This shows that UNLV’s football program has turned from a historically bad program to one that is competing for championships possibly due to the change of scenery.
