Why the Chiefs and 49ers are staying in Lake Las Vegas, not on The Strip (2024)

The Chiefs beat the 49ers in overtime to win Super Bowl LVIII.

LAS VEGAS — It’s not unusual for the NFL to be meticulous in its security planning leading up to the Super Bowl. For an event of its magnitude, it only makes sense.

In preparing for Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, however, the league also appears to have been strategic in deciding where its participating teams would reside for the week. The Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers won’t be staying anywhere near the iconic Las Vegas Strip.

Leading up to the Feb. 11 game, the NFL, Las Vegas city officials and corporate sponsors have endlessly pushed all of the positives that’ll come from hosting the city’s first Super Bowl. It’s expected to be a financial boon, is projected to bring in hundreds of thousands of tourists and is surely the most significant statement to date that Vegas has evolved into a major player in the sports world.

But before Sin City became a burgeoning sports landscape, the city was effectively blackballed for decades by professional sports leagues because of the negative stigma that came with the city’s off-field attractions, like gambling, nightlife and other not-safe-for-work activities.

Events such as the 2007 NBA All-Star Game seemed to justify that narrative. It resulted in over 400 arrests, including then-NFL cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones for his alleged involvement in a shooting that left a strip club security guard paralyzed.

Las Vegas businesspeople were eventually able to push through, however, as the city became home to NHL, WNBA, NFL and (soon) MLB franchises in addition to hosting large-scale events like the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix with the help of the proliferation of legal sports betting. Still, the dark side of the city’s many trappings is something of which professional sports leagues remain astutely aware.

The Niners have landed in Las Vegas 🛬 #SBLVIII pic.twitter.com/sFUQ1rhkMw

— NFL (@NFL) February 5, 2024

That’s probably part of why the Chiefs and 49ers, after landing in Vegas on Sunday, had a decent trip to get to their hotels. The Chiefs will be staying at the Westin Lake Las Vegas Resort and Spa while the 49ers will reside at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort and Spa. The properties are located about 25 miles east of The Strip.

“We traditionally have teams stay a distance from the stadium and from a city where there’s room enough for the club and family,” NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller said last week. “Most clubs prefer a quieter environment. Obviously, they’ve got their eyes set on their one specific goal, and any distraction during that week is a distraction they don’t want to deal with. So, I don’t think that it’s too terribly different from previous years.”

Lake Las Vegas — yes, there are bodies of water in the desert — is a residential and resort development built around a 320-acre dammed lake within the suburb of Henderson, Nev. The manmade lake is connected to Lake Mead, which is a reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam that draws its water source from the Colorado River. Typically, the drive from Lake Las Vegas to The Strip takes about 30 to 45 minutes one way.

In 1965, actor J. Carlton Adair acquired the land that surrounds Lake Las Vegas for the purposes of constructing a dam, lake and resorts. It’s far from the most popular attraction — Lake at Las Vegas Joint Venture, LLC filed for bankruptcy in 2008 — but the NFL picking hotels there for its Super Bowl participants does make sense.

There are casinos in Lake Las Vegas — NFL employees are barred from visiting casinos or gambling in any form during Super Bowl week — just like everywhere else in the state, but it’s largely a place meant for wholesome activities. There are golf courses, spas, an aqua park, lakeside dining, shopping areas, boating, kayaking and hiking, but it’s short on nightclubs and bars.

Lake Las Vegas is essentially a quiet area surrounded by nature that is a draw for visitors who want to relax. In theory, that should keep players, coaches and other team personnel from getting caught up in what Las Vegas has to offer at night.

Just like they would for any other game, the Chiefs and 49ers will enforce curfews at their hotels. The teams will spend seven or eight nights in Vegas for the Super Bowl and hope to emerge from the jam-packed weekend without incident.

On Monday evening, each team participated in “Super Bowl Opening Night” at Allegiant Stadium. Fans were present for the glorified media day as Chiefs and 49ers players and coaches participated in interviews with the media and took team photos.

.@Chiefs QB @PatrickMahomes is LIVE from Las Vegas! #SBOpeningNight https://t.co/jDNAnDwUu1

— NFL (@NFL) February 6, 2024

While the teams conducted meetings Sunday and Monday, game preparation ramps up when practices begin Tuesday. The Chiefs will be practicing at their AFC West rival Raiders’ team headquarters in Henderson. The 49ers were scheduled to practice on UNLV’s campus, but concerns about the soft fields forced them to reconsider their options. Before they practice, coaches Andy Reid and Kyle Shanahan and their players will participate in interviews with the media at their respective hotels.

The Chiefs and 49ers will repeat that routine Wednesday and Thursday. Although they practice at roughly the same time Tuesday, the Chiefs opted for morning practices Wednesday and Thursday, while the 49ers will practice in the afternoon.

Neither team will have full practices or media availability Friday or Saturday, but they’ll be allowed to have meetings and walk-throughs as they finalize their game-planning process. Sunday, of course, is game day. The Chiefs and 49ers will face off at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 PT.

The losing team will likely head home Sunday evening, but the winning coach and Super Bowl MVP will have to stick around for a news conference at 8:30 a.m. PT Monday at Mandalay Bay Convention Center. They’ll likely be celebrating Sunday evening and will be free to venture out and explore what Vegas nightlife has to offer, however, so it’ll be interesting to see what time that news conference actually starts.

The NFL can live with a little tardiness, but it will be aiming, at all costs, to avoid Super Bowl LVIII becoming an embarrassment. The league has grown familiar with Las Vegas in recent years through the Raiders, having the city host two Pro Bowls and bringing an NFL Draft to town, so officials are confident they know what to expect. The Super Bowl, though, will be the greatest test yet.

“It’s the same as it is for any other game in any other situation, which is making sure we’re doing all that we can to protect the integrity of the game,” Miller said when asked if there was any concern that came with the Super Bowl being in Las Vegas. “The rules associated with gambling have been made clear to players and coaches, league and club personnel and everybody else so much so that they should be prepared for anything that Las Vegas has to offer in that realm. While Las Vegas is a symbol because it’s had sports gambling for quite some time, it’s also a very sophisticated city and a mature city as it relates to engagement with the NFL and other sports at this point.

“That makes us very comfortable playing the game there.”

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(Photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)