A stadium at the height of the second Barça-Madrid in the history of the United States

The Barça will play this summer for the first time in its history in Las Vegas and he will do it in a big way, and not only to face his archrival, the Real Madrid. It will be next Saturday, July 23. The stage where this second Classic of all time in the United States of America, the Allegiant Stadiumis up to such a universal confrontation.

Inaugurated at the end of July 2020 and with a capacity for 65,000 spectators, it is the home of Las Vegas Raidersteam of the NFL that in 2020 he moved to Nevada, leaving the California that had sheltered him since the 1960s, first as Oakland Raiders and then how Los Angeles Raidersholders of three titles NFL. Precisely, the facilities they found in Las Vegas to build a new stadium were a key reason for the move.

Built in the city of Paradise, annexed to the south of Las Vegas where the international airport and the famous Caesars Palace hotel, iconic boxing venue, are located, the Allegiant Stadium It cost around 1,800 million dollars (more than €1.7 billion), amount financed by public and private funds. To get an idea, the current draft reform of the Camp Nou is estimated on €900 million. Both are very far from the 5,000 billion dollars (€4.7 billion) that cost the SoFi Stadium of The Angelswhich makes it the most expensive sports venue in the world.

Another parallelism very typical of these times is that if a commercial name has already been sought for the Camp Nou with Spotify of sponsor, the Raiders announced on August 5, 2019 an agreement with Allegiant Air for which the low-cost airline would baptize the brand new coliseum.

Technically, one of the most striking elements of the stadium is its opaque retractable roof. It was compared to a Roomba vacuum cleaner and, with much greater imaginative effort, to the Death Star from Star Wars. The strong heat of the Nevada desert changed the luminous initial project, based on absolute transparency, although it has huge retractable panels to allow natural light to pass through. The stadium also has one of the most modern lighting and sound systems on the planet. The match will be played in the hottest month of the year in Las Vegas, July, with usual temperatures hovering around 35º/40º. Luckily, the air conditioning system is also state-of-the-art, in an area with all kinds of services (bars, restaurants, VIP areas…).

The laying of the first stone of the Allegiant Stadium took place on November 13, 2017, in an act that also honored the victims of the shooting that took place in the city a month and a half before. Like almost all these projects of such magnitude, it had its drawbacks before enjoying the use for which it was designed. The opening of the stadium was scheduled for August 22, 2020 with a concert by the country star Garth Brooks, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the performance was postponed until February 2021. Nor were the Las Vegas Raiders able to open their new home in the 2020 preseason on August 27, 2020 against the Arizona Cardinals. Finally, the Raiders played on September 21 on Monday Night Football against the New Orleans Saints.

Just as it is always remembered that on September 24 1957 the paraguayan Eulogio Martinez He was the first goalscorer in the history of the Camp Nou in a friendly between Barça and the Warsaw team, in the Allegiant Stadium the honor of the first ‘touch down’ fell to the figure of Alvin Kamara. Despite its young age, the Allegiant Stadium has already hosted the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup final, with the United States triumphing over Mexico (1-0).

Las Vegas and its glittering Allegiant Stadium will host the jewel in the crown of the NFL, the Super Bowl 2024, pinnacle moment of American football. But a Barça-Madrid Clasico in the city of casinos, weddings in suits Elvis and the ‘Rat Pack‘, it will be like a delicious appetizer.

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