LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A to Z Sports released a report Friday that Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas would be the best location to host a neutral site AFC Championship game adding to a slew of speculation that the game would land in Las Vegas if a non-home game was required following Monday's cancelled Bengals Bills game.
Front Office Sports Senior Reporter AJ Perez said the eventual pick would have to be right.
"I'm sure there's a short list that Roger Goodell, the commissioner, is going to be picking," Perez said. "There's probably some lobbying behind closed doors right now."
Perez said he'd heard no inside news of conversations between the league and authorities in Las Vegas, and Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority officials were tight lipped when asked if any were happening.
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Perez did say, however, that any host city would need to provide, on short notice, a high capacity stadium, entertainment for travelers, and ample hotel space for two huge fan bases.
"You're going to need that hotel space," he said. "We need to be able to put everybody in there, and there's very few cities that could handle that."
NFL Officials didn't respond to a request for comment.
"We're probably the only city that could do this on short notice," said financial analyst Steve Budin.
Budin said Las Vegas stood primed to make a lot of money from a surprise championship game coming to the city as fans would fill the 65,000 seat stadium.
"Every single person in the audience is going to spend at least $1,000 or $1,500 per person between meals, hotel rooms, air fair," he said. "It could easily be a $100,000,000 benefit to the city."
Budin said that estimate didn't include the untold number of fans who'd travel just to be inside the city with their teams.
"Just the overall buzz of being around the game will generate more and more visitors so the sky is the limit for how many people can come and watch this game," he said.
Perez said fans will likely know more about where the AFC Championship game could be played in the coming week.
