Sam Boyd Stadium sold in $5 million deal

Article posted by Coliseum, January 30^th, 2025

Image: Sam Boyd Stadium, Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0

The former home stadium of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Rebels football team has been sold to Clark County in a $5 million deal.

County commissioners agreed to acquire the 69-acre Sam Boyd Stadium site from UNLV, with the stadium now likely to be torn down.

The Las Vegas Review Journal said that as part of a joint use agreement with the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders and the Las Vegas Stadium Authority, UNLV was banned from using Sam Boyd Stadium for any purpose in exchange for being able to play in Allegiant Stadium from 2020.

The venue, which opened in 1971, was a threat to Allegiant Stadium’s business and could drive down the rate to use Allegiant. By getting Sam Boyd Stadium out of the large event business, that ensured Allegiant Stadium would be the premiere (and only) large format venue.

The 65,000-capacity Allegiant Stadium is a domed multipurpose stadium located in Paradise, Nevada, Southwest of adjacent Las Vegas (US). Opened in 2020, it is the home field of the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL).

Sam Boyd Stadium, which was home to the Rebels for 49 years, has been falling into disrepair ever since the football program moved to Allegiant Stadium.

The Las Vegas Review Journal further stated that the $5 million price was set after UNLV and Clark County commissioned separate third-party appraisals for the land.

In 2023, UNLV received an appraisal that valued the land at $10.4 million. The county received an appraisal in 2023 that valued the land at $0.

The two sides met in the middle to help offset $20 million in upgrades that UNLV made to the stadium over the years, and for the $500,000 the school spent per year to maintain the abandoned stadium since 2020.

Clark County owned Sam Boyd when it opened in 1971, with UNLV football playing in it as a “stadium user” until 1985, when the county transferred ownership of the site to the university for no fee.

The Bureau of Land Management owned the land before the county and controls most of the land surrounding the site.

UNLV will put the $5 million into a “quasi endowment,” where the school would have flexibility for where it is used, Whitfield said last month.

Some areas that the funding will go toward are women’s sports, infrastructure, student financial aid and support programs.

It is unclear what Clark County has planned for the stadium site, but documents from a regents meeting last year indicated that nearby Silver Bowl Park could be expanded, or the land could be used for community infrastructure needs.

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