Culture and Attractions

The Las Vegas metropolitan area, better known as the Las Vegas Valley, is a 600 square mile (1600 km²) basin that is part of Clark County in southern Nevada. The area contains the largest concentration of people in the state. The history of the Las Vegas metropolitan area naturally coincides with the history of the city of Las Vegas, Nevada. In 2005, the valley played host to 34.7 million visitors.

 

Convention centers

At the end of 2004, Las Vegas had over 9 million square feet (800,000 m²) of convention center space.

  • Las Vegas Convention Center 3.2 million square feet (300,000 m²) as of 2004.
  • Sands Expo and Convention Center and Venetian Congress facility with over 1.8 million square feet (170,000 m²) as of 2004.
  • Mandalay Bay Convention Center with nearly 1 million square feet (90,000 m²) as of 2003.
  • Las Vegas Hilton with 220,000 square feet (20,000 m²) as of 2004.
  • Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino with 163,00 square feet as of 2005.
  • Harrah's Las Vegas with 25,000 square feet (2,300 m²) as of 2004.

Events and conventions

  • Consumer Electronics Show
  • MAGIC
  • National Association of Broadcasters
  • CineVegas Film Festival

Gardens and zoos

  • Ethel M Botanical Cactus Gardens
  • Southern Nevada Zoological-Botanical Park
  • University of Nevada at Las Vegas Arboretum
  • The Gardens at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve (previously the Desert Demonstration Garden)
  • Las Vegas Springs Preserve, scheduled to open in 2006, is owned by the Las Vegas Valley Water District. The Preserve is intended to showcase and preserve the old springs that were the reason for Las Vegas's existence. It is also intended to show people how to live in the desert environment and how to take advantage of what is available.

Part of this project showcases a dual use concept. So the parking area is actually the roof of the reservoir. The shade structures in various areas are actually Photovoltaic cells used to generate power for the site.

Landmarks

  • Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign
  • The Las Vegas Strip is listed as a National Scenic Byway and designated an "All-American Road"
  • The Fremont Street Experience which is the world's largest multi-media display in the world covering 4 city blocks.
  • Hoover Dam
  • The Grand Canyon is located approximately 180 miles (290 km) south of Las Vegas. Many bus and helicopter tours are available from Las Vegas.

Shopping

  • The Fashion Show
  • The Meadows Mall
  • Galleria at Sunset
  • The Boulevard Mall -- Las Vegas ' oldest shopping mall
  • The Forum Shops at Caesars
  • Fashion Outlets at Primm
  • Grand Canel Shoppes
  • Desert Passage

Culture

  • Nevada Ballet Theater
  • Las Vegas Philharmonic
  • Summerlin Performing Arts Center

Museums

  • Atomic Testing Museum
  • Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art at the Bellagio
  • Clark County Museum in Henderson on Boulder Highway
  • Discovery Children's Museum located on Las Vegas Boulvard in the downtown area
  • Elvis-A-Rama Museum on Industrial Road
  • Guggenheim Hermitage Museum located at The Venetian
  • Howard W. Cannon Aviation Museum located at McCarran International Airport
  • Las Vegas Art Museum Located at the Sahara Library
  • Las Vegas Natural History Museum located on Las Vegas Boulvard in the downtown area
  • Liberace Museum
  • Neon Museum at the Fremont Street Experience located at the Fremont Street Experience
  • Nevada State Museum and Historical Society
  • Nevada State Railroad Museum in Boulder City

Recreation

With approximately 90% of Nevada owned by the US Federal Government (see Bureau of Land Management and Nellis Air Force Base), it should not be a surprise that the Federal Government land offers some of the largest playgrounds in the area.

Boating

  • Federal
    • Lake Mead

Parks

  • Federal
    • Desert National Wildlife Range
    • Lake Mead National Recreation Area
    • Red Rock National Conservation Area
    • Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area
    • Spring Mountains National Recreation Area
    • North McCullough Wilderness Area
    • Mount Charleston Wilderness Area
  • State
    • Big Bend of the Colorado State Park
    • Floyd Lamb State Park
    • Old Las Vegas Mormon State Historic Park
    • Spring Mountain Ranch State Park
    • Valley of Fire State Park

  • Clark County (as of 3/31/2005 there are over 66 parks)
    • Clark County Wetlands Park
    • Desert Breeze Park and Center
  • City of Las Vegas
  • Other
    • Summerlin parks

Rock climbing

  • Federal
    • Red Rock National Recreation Area

Snow sking

• Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Area

Sports

Las Vegas is one of the largest cities in the United States to have no major professional sports league teams. Several reasons have been cited for this:

  • Las Vegas only became a large market very recently.
  • The perceived stigma of legal sports betting may be seen as being in conflict of interest with any potential pro sports team being located in Las Vegas by the NBA, the NFL, Major League Baseball and the NHL. The former three leagues have especially strong anti-gambling policies, going so far as to prohibit their leagues' personnel from having any involvement in gambling interests. There are currently no laws preventing Nevada sports books from accepting bets on local professional teams, and many casinos have said they would not voluntarily take a local team "off the boards."
  • Some potential owners believe a professional sports franchise would have serious difficulty competing for an audience in a city with so many entertainment options. Also, Las Vegas is not on a work schedule similar to most cities. Other cities have most workers on a 9 to 5, Monday-Friday schedule. Las Vegas is a true 24/7 city, which results in a smaller potential market for a sports event when it is compared to a similar sized city.
  • Las Vegas is still a relatively small television market, because the larger outlying areas were all drawn into the markets of larger cities farther away decades ago. For example, St. George, Utah is now part of the Salt Lake City market, and Bullhead City, Arizona is part of the Phoenix market. Las Vegas' TV market has been ranked as the 51st largest in the US, behind places like Albuquerque, Greensboro, Harrisburg, and Hartford. Furthermore, although Nevada's population is growing rapidly, it still had under two million people in the 2000 census. No other state with less than two million people has a major league franchise, and there is only one team (the Utah Jazz) based in a state with a population of less than three million.

Las Vegas is the home of the following minor league teams:

  • Las Vegas Gladiators (Arena Football League)
  • Las Vegas 51s (Pacific Coast League), Class AAA minor league baseball
  • Las Vegas Rattlers (American Basketball Association)
  • Las Vegas Wranglers (ECHL)

Las Vegas hosts these motor sports at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway:

  • NASCAR Nextel Cup Series: UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400
  • NASCAR Busch Series: Sam's Town 300
  • NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series: Las Vegas 350
  • NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals

Las Vegas hosts these pro tour events:

  • PGA Michelin Championship at Las Vegas Oct 7-10, 2004
  • LPGA -- (to be named event)
  • PRCA Wrangler National Finals Rodeo
  • PBR -- Built Ford Tough World Finals
  • PBA Las Vegas Open

Las Vegas hosts these Professional Rodeo events:

National Finals Rodeo

Las Vegas hosts the Las Vegas Bowl, a college bowl game, around Christmas day.

  • Previous Las Vegas Minor League teams
  • The Las Vegas Posse was a former Canadian Football League team that played at Sam Boyd Stadium
  • The Las Vegas Outlaws during their one XFL football season at Sam Boyd Stadium.
  • The Las Vegas Thunder played in the now-defunct International Hockey League for six seasons, from 1993 to 1999.

Las Vegas has become an internationally known motor racing locale having hosted the elite Formula One racers at Caesars Palace and the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) for Indy racers in the early "80's. Las Vegas was also the home of the famed "Mint 400" Desert Race from 1968-1987 run in the unforgiving Nevada desert outside Las Vegas. Nearly 100,000 spectators lined the 100 mile (160 km) loop to view the 500+ off road racing vehicles. Sponsored by Del Webb's Mint Hotel and Casino, the event was the largest and richest event in the sport. The technical and safety inspection was held on famed Fremont Street and became one of the major must attend sporting events in Las Vegas history. The race ended when Del Webb organization sold the Mint Hotel to the adjacent Horseshoe owned by the legendary Binion gaming family.

Las Vegas is also host to many professional boxing matches and has hosted many heavyweight boxing championship bouts. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas Rebels (Runnin' Rebels is used only by the men's basketball program) host Mountain West Conference events on the UNLV campus and eight miles (13 km) east, at Sam Boyd Stadium. Indoor sporting events involving UNLV teams are held at the Thomas & Mack Center complex, both at the main arena and at Cox Pavilion, a smaller arena attached to the complex.

In April 2004, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig publicly revealed that MLB was considering Las Vegas as a potential future home for the Montreal Expos. However, MLB eventually chose Washington, D.C. as the Expos' new home.

The NBA has awarded the 2007 NBA All-Star Game to Las Vegas. The 2007 game will be the first one to be played in a non-NBA city. As part of the conditions the NBA set for holding the game in Las Vegas, the Nevadan sportbooks have agreed not to take bets on the game. However, All-Star games are essentially exhibition matches and are never subject to heavy betting.


Las Vegas FEATURED SPONSERED LINKS...

Information

History

Geography

Culture & Attraction

Law Government

Transportation

Satelite photos