The Cost to Attend the MNF Raiders Season Opener vs The Saints in Vegas

The Oakland chapter in Raider history closed on December 15th, 2019 and on September 21st, 2020 the chapter opens in Fabulous Las Vegas. We know that Raider Nation will show up in full force to open The Death Star (or The Al or The Black Hole or The Black Pearl, you decide). So how much will it cost you to be part of history? Let’s find out.

Tickets to MNF Game vs Saints on September 21st

If you want to be part of history, it is going to cost you. The opening of Allegiant Stadium is the hottest ticket in town and Raider Nation will be descending on Las Vegas in full force. The hottest ticket in town will also be the most expensive, so if getting into the stadium is on your bucket list, it’s going to cost you. How much?

As expected, pricing for this game are selling at a premium. This is the most expensive ticket of the year and based on our comparison prices from just a week ago, prices are trending up.

For a group of 2, ticket prices will start around $1,500 ($750/ticket) to get in the building and run well over $4,000 ($2,000+) for premium seats.

For this exercise, we will buy the tickets in section 102, which will cost about $2,750 for two tickets to the Saints opener.

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Flights to Las Vegas for the MNF Game vs Saints

The most variable part of the equation will be actually getting to Vegas. If you are driving from Las Angeles or local to the Vegas area, you will get a nice savings. If you are flying from the UK or Australia (because, Raider Nation is worldwide), this could even be more expensive than the tickets.

The majority of flights going into and out of Vegas are from one of the budget airlines (Allegiant, Southwest Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Spirit Airlines, WestJet, Sun Country Airlines) or national carriers (Delta, American Airlines, United Airlines).

There are direct flights from the following American cities to Las Vegas: Atlanta, Albany, Albuquerque, Anchorage, Austin, Baltimore, Bismarck, Boston, Boise, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Colorado Springs, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Des Moines, Detroit, El Paso, Fort Lauderdale, Honolulu, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Las Angeles, Little Rock, Louisville, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Nashville, New York City, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Orlando, Palm Springs, Pittsburgh, Portland, Raleigh, Reno, San Diego, San Fransisco, Seattle, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Jose, St Louis, Tampa, Washington DC

Let’s take a quick look at some tickets prices from around the world. It is important to know that bags and extras may not be included in these fares, especially with the low-cost providers. This could increase your ticket price $50-$100 or more depending on your choices.

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On average, a flight from a major city with a low cost provider can be had for under $200 round-trip. National providers and international flights can be closer to $300 round-trip with the highest we looked at being from London at $775. We highly recommend booking these flights now while many airlines are having sales and trying to drum up business post-COVID-19 shutdown.

Coming from Indianapolis on a budget airline, our flights would be about $350 after bags, seats, and premium options at the airport.

Hotel in Las Vegas for the MNF Game vs Saints

We expect to stay in Vegas for 4 nights, coming in Thursday evening after work and heading home on Tuesday morning/early afternoon. This means 5 nights in a hotel. We could potentially shorten this, but if we are making the investment, we want to be in Vegas for all the weekend festivities. With certain routes, it could be easier to head in Friday morning, but all prices will be based on the 5-nights below.

Please note that per night is the “list rate” per night and does not include resort fees. The total cost includes 5 nights plus all fees, so would be your all in costs. All prices come from Vegas.com which gives you the option book hotels, shows, and flights all in one place!

The Tropicana, Excalibur, and OYO are close to Allegiant Stadium and would be the budget options. If you are concerned with budget and less about location, the downtown locations like Four Queens and Plaza give budget options, with The D and Golden Nugget offering good value.

The Flamingo and NY-NY are on the lower end of the price point, but after great value and location. I would throw in Luxor and MGM Grand into the mix as the best compromise of value, location, and overall hotel.

And the center strip and north strip offer the top luxury accommodations with a higher price point, but often worth the upgrade. These are typically the best location on the strip for a normal Vegas weekend, but are a bit further from the stadium. With the number of people and shuttles, this may not actually matter.

For the weekend, I went with NY-NY based on the location, cost, and my MGM status. I also considered MGM Grand, but ultimately decided on NY-NY. If I was a Caesar’s VIP, I would have likely chosen the Flamingo or Caesar’s Place.

The Vegas Budget

Well Vegas isn’t the budget destination that it once was, there are still plenty of ways to do Vegas on a budget. That said, here’s my standard budget for a 5 night weekend for an event like the Raiders game in Vegas.

Gambling: I like to gamble, but that’s not my major motivation. I’ve always done some version of taking my gambling budget, dividing it evenly into my number of nights, and set that as my playing budget. Because there is a game and lots of festivities, I could concievibly do 50% of my normal budget.

Typically I play $15-25 hands of blackjack and like to start with at least $200/sitting. That means I would usually plan for a $1,000 gambling budget for a 5-night Vegas trip. Because there will be so much going on, I will likely do more like $600, as the MNF game will basically cut a full day of gambling.

On the low end, I’d say everyone could play with $100-200 in the slots. My wife usually only ever puts in $100 during any trip. This gambling budget is totally personal, so take whatever you can afford to lose and have some fun!

Food & Beverages: I am a bit of a foodie and Vegas is my favorite place to eat. That said, we usually do 1-2 nice dinners and then the rest do cool, mid-prices restaurants. There are plenty of cool concepts in Vegas that allow you to flex this budget.

I usually expect 2 meals at $125/person, so $500 for the fine dining or nice steakhouse. Our blog is littered with some of these favorite restaurants, so check it out and see what fits your taste. The other dinners I expect about $50/person, so $300. Typically, I budget approximently $150-200/day for food and beverages if I’m with my wife and less depending on my company.

For this trip, I will budget $800 for food and beverage.

Shows, Entertainment, Other: There are hundreds of things to do in Vegas. Often times I spend the majority of my days at the pool, have a nice dinner, and do some gambling, so we don’t typically spend much outside of those. But at times we’ve gone to the Grand Canyon (awesome), rented a convertible and hit up Red Rock, or partied at a pool party or night club (but probably not in 2020).

Overall, you can spend as little or much as you want on shows and entertainment. If you want to hit up a show, we highly recommend Absinthe or Atomic Saloon Show. We also enjoyed Love and a number of comics and entertainers that call Vegas home. Find out all the cool shows happening here.

If we did one show, we’d likely spend $150-200 in extras for this weekend.

So all in, how much would it cost to go to Vegas for the opening game vs the Saints?

Our total came out to $6,100 for two people including flight, hotel, tickets, and plenty of fun, food, and booze. If I was on a budget, I could decrease that number quite a bit. Here’s what that might look like.

Overall, this gives us a nice 5-night stay in Vegas and seeing the first Raider game ever in Vegas. If that isn’t worth $3,200, I don’t know what is!

Need help planning your trip? Hit us up on Twitter @VegasRaiderGD or comment below and we can answer any question!