Rich Eisen’s ideal Vegas vacation: Super Bowl LXIII

As Rich Eisen kicks off a chat about Las Vegas hosting the Super Bowl, he quickly runs the table. Or tables.

“Las Vegas brings everything to the table, and they bring people to the tables,” says the veteran NFL Network and ESPN broadcast great. “Dinner tables. Blackjack tables. You lead the league in tables.”

Eisen has gained fame as a lead studio anchor for NFL Network since 2003 and is currently hosting “The Rich Eisen Show” on the ESPN app (live 9 a.m-noon weekdays). He knows his way around NFL cities, Super Bowl sites and major league destinations generally.

Our conversation was just ahead of the announcement that Las Vegas will host Super Bowl LXIII in February 2029 at Allegiant Stadium. We also chatted in 2022, during the NFL Draft, about Las Vegas’ appeal as an NFL host city.

Eisen was especially bullish on the city, understandably, as he was on break from the NFL Network broadcast stage on Lake Bellagio.

“When NFL Network started, that never would have happened,” Eisen said. “In 2003, Las Vegas was not on anybody’s radar in the NFL.”

Of course, the expansion of legal sports wagering across the country has led to the league’s acceptance of Las Vegas as an event host. Eisen has seen that process from the inside out.

“These days, you’re seeing everything painted through the lens of a sports line. There are official gambling partners of various sports leagues now,” Eisen said. “So once that firewall began to disappear, now you can have the idea of holding premier events for a sports league in Vegas, as well as actually putting teams there.”

The city’s infrastructure for absorbing and effectively staging major events impressed Eisen immediately.

“Las Vegas has everything you want, when you go to a Super Bowl in particular,” Eisen said. “You want to have a hotel that you’re looking at for whatever price you can afford, you want dinner opportunities, you want entertainment opportunities.

“You want the sights and sounds and tastes of the town that’s hosting, and Las Vegas lets you do all of that.”

Eisen reminds that finding a last-minute hotel or dinner reservation in many NFL cities is not always in the cards. “But in Vegas, you sure can,” he says. “It’s convenient, it’s dynamic, it’s accessible.”

Four years ago, Eisen closed his final NFL Network telecast at 8 p.m. Friday.

“I was watching Sebastian Maniscalco at the Wynn by 10 o’clock,” Eisen says. “I mean, give me a break.”

But there have been kinks in the planning. During the 2024 Super Bowl in Las Vegas, Eisen checked into his hotel room and detected a concern, fragrance-wise.

“I got to my room and, you know, whatever happens there, stays there, and that included this odor,” Eisen says, not specifying the hotel. “So I called the front desk, and I thought, ‘This is the Super Bowl. I’m never going to get another room.’ But they said, ‘Give us a minute,’ and they had it! It existed! Amazing.”

Eisen says the city would be a great NBA city, too.

“We were talking on the show, and Vegas is now going to join cities like Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, D.C., as cities on the American map that have a team from all four major North American sports leagues,” he said.

The caveat is, an NBA team — and the Athletics, for that matter — face unique competition for time and money in Las Vegas. Tourists on vacation and broadcasters from national outlets already realize this.

“The teams need to be pretty good, because you’re going to make a decision, do I go to the Sphere or see a team 30 games under .500?” Eisen says. “But again, Las Vegas is an international city, and many ways to draw a fan to Las Vegas.

“There are many reasons why any sports league would want to have a team stationed there.”

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.