There’s nothing bigger than the Super Bowl, but Las Vegas grabbed some extra headlines this year when it was announced that Allegiant Stadium hosted the first Super Bowl to be powered 100% by renewable, carbon-free energy—a significant accomplishment in sustainability for the 65,000-seat game changer that opened just west of the Strip in 2020.

“I don’t know if people really understand what it means … that we have our own power source so we’re giving credits back to the city, not using credits at the stadium,” says senior director of facility maintenance Samantha Cuen Salazar. “There are a lot of different initiatives that have been going on here since the beginning, but we were really proud to achieve LEED Gold Certification in 2023 and to be able to expand the sustainability program.”

Cuen Salazar and her team handle everything from the locker room facilities and hosting artists for the stadium’s concerts to managing janitorial, landscaping and environmental services—essentially top-to-bottom responsibilities at the biggest event center in Las Vegas. It’s a task not suited for mere mortals; appropriately, Cuen Salazar helped open T-Mobile Arena in 2016 and the Las Vegas Ballpark in Downtown Summerlin in 2019. She came in as a bit of a ringer, and prior to those experiences, she worked in the resort industry on the Strip.

“I was at Aria and I used to look out the window at the arena coming up and thinking, that’s kinda cool,” she says. “I feel honored and privileged to say I opened up our city’s free-standing sports venues.”

Allegiant Stadium originally opened for Raiders games with no fans in seats during the pandemic. Did starting off under those unusual and challenging circumstances benefit or enhance the approach to managing and operating the facility today?

It definitely put things into a different perspective, showed things in a different light. We’re always looking at overall best practices for our guests, but it also just put us in a place where we keep a finer eye, a closer eye on everything taking place … and to be able to make changes as we go to ensure we stay on top of everything.

There are so many interesting features at the stadium and guests have become familiar with lots of them, but I feel like the lanai doors just behind the Al Davis Memorial Torch haven’t received enough attention.

Last year we did start opening and utilizing the lanai doors a little more, and all of that is based on weather. Las Vegas can be a bit windy. But it is a really nice piece of the facility and the tour guests get a great view of the city when we have those doors in action. I do think the torch has been focused on, the field tray has been focused on, there’s been a lot of chatter about the ETFE roof. This stadium has had some focus or been touched on in each space. But we are working on what it could look like to have a major event with [the doors] being a possible component.

Las Vegas hosted its first Super Bowl with style, but you hosted the actual game. What was that like from a venue management perspective?

It was such an honor to be part of such an amazing event, and having the Super Bowl come in meant there are lot more parts of the stadium that change a lot. Around the outside, there was a lot to do to build those activations, and there were times when you stop and look at the landscaping and think, wow, can we get this back together again? (Laughs.) But the NFL was great, and each partner involved was really amazing to deal with, and they really just came in January and took over and it was remarkable to watch the change happen. You’re hoping everything was perfect for the fans and all the guests, and I think we all accomplished a memory that stays always. And then once they’re gone, you want to ensure everything is back in place and we were able to do that and host a big rugby event 18 days later, so that was also an amazing accomplishment between the two.

It feels a little hectic to think you can host the biggest event on the planet and then break it down and set up for another huge sporting event that quickly, but that seems like the current pace across Las Vegas.

I think so. You certainly see other large stadiums like SoFi [in LA] that would have the same [process], but I feel like at this stadium, it is done with that Las Vegas standard. Something I learned from the five-star hotel process was to do those daily walks and critique everything, and try to push and implement improvement daily. And running an arena and providing the same quality as one of our amazing Strip resort properties here, it’s a constant effort.

After so many massive events in just a few years, is there something coming up at Allegiant that might move the needle?

The NCAA Tournament is going to be something new and different when the Final Four is here in 2028, and preparation to host an event like that is just different. The Super Bowl obviously takes years to plan, and rugby was completely different, we’ve hosted soccer and that was huge, and some of the concerts we’ve had are now coming back. But I think that will be the next big one to come as far as something that will take over in a different way, and something that has a lot of components.

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