Utah State excited to play at new Allegiant Stadium
From 1971 to 2019, a trip to Las Vegas to face UNLV meant playing at Sam Boyd Stadium.
Approximately eight miles east of UNLV’s campus, the stadium’s capacity is 36,800 and was a suitable home for the Rebels.
But unlike the school’s basketball arena, the Thomas and Mack Center, which is situated on campus and has an impressive view of the Las Vegas strip, Sam Boyd Stadium is on the edge of the city. Surrounded by dirt parking lots and tumbleweeds, the stadium is entirely bleacher seating and the structure itself is outdated.
Thanks to the NFL’s Raiders, who moved from Oakland to Las Vegas in 2020 and built a state-of-the-art, 65,000 seated climate-controlled stadium, UNLV no longer has to call Sam Boyd Stadium home.
Situated just west of the Mandalay Bay on the other side of the I-15, Allegiant Stadium, nicknamed “The Death Star” because its outward appearance looking similar to the Star Wars spaceship, is ironically the new home base of the Rebels.
This means when Utah State Football (3-2) takes on UNLV (0-5) on Saturday evening in Las Vegas, they’ll be playing in a glitzy NFL stadium.
“I’ve been in the Sam Boyd Stadium a handful of times, out in the desert. I kind of thought it was cool being out there,” said Utah State Head Coach Blake Anderson. “Our guys will be excited [playing at Allegiant Stadium]. Anytime you walk into a stadium that is this big — I mean, it’s just the thing is massive — It’s gonna be gorgeous. It’s brand new. There’s a wow factor when you walk in. But I think pretty quickly, you realize it’s time to play ball.”
For Utah State players, playing in a new NFL stadium is an exciting prospect. Senior offensive lineman Demytrick Ali’fua, who is from Hayward, California, is amped up.
“It’s the best,” he siad. “I’m a big-time Raider fan. I’m from the Bay Area. I’m excited man.”
Junior Hunter Reynolds, who spent four seasons at Michigan, has played plenty of games in large big stadiums in his time at the Big Ten. But the New Jersey native specifically remembers playing in NFL stadiums.
“Yeah, it’s always cool playing in an NFL stadium,” Reynolds said. “I think in my life I’ve played in MetLife Stadium, I’ve played in the Falcon’s stadium, Mercedes Benz. So I played in those two, so to be able to play the third, that’s definitely gonna be an enjoyable experience.”
It will be the first NFL stadium the Aggies have played in since 2019 when they played San Diego State at SDCCU Stadium, which was home to the Chargers, and now demolished.
Besides Aztecs and Chargers old home, where Utah State played at several times, the only other known time where the Aggies played in a stadium that was home to an NFL team was 2016. They faced USC in the LA Memorial Coliseum while The Los Angeles Rams were also playing there.
This will be the first time — at least in recent history — Utah State plays at an NFL stadium that was originally built to hold an NFL team
But playing at an NFL stadium doesn’t mean they’ll be playing in an NFL-like atmosphere.
UNLV is 0-5 on the season, and likely won’t drive a big crowd. In the Rebels defense, they’re averaging 28,582 fans through two games, which is more than Utah State’s average of 22,360. Both games for the Rebels fans had compelling reasons to attend.
Against Eastern Washington, 21,970 showed up for the first game with fans at Allegiant Stadium in its history. The second was against a nationally ranked opponent, Iowa State drew 35,193. They’ll be people in attendance on Saturday. But the stadium may feel empty, because of its size.
“Obviously, with them being 0-5, don’t expect there to be a huge roaring crowd to meet [us],” Anderson said. “My big concern is we’ve played in great environments for five weeks in a row. And I want to make sure that our guys don’t expect the energy to come from outside, it’s going to have to come from our sideline. Hopefully, we’ll have a great crowd that follows us down there, but it’s still a massive place that’s likely to be less than half full or even worse. And so you’ve got to bring your own energy.”
According to Reynolds, the atmosphere doesn’t matter.
“All those times during camp we were you know on the practice fields there were no fans,” he said. “I mean even last year, having come from the Big Ten we didn’t have fans for most of the season. So it’s something we’re all kind of used to. So I think it really just comes down to at the end of day it’s football so you got to do your job.”
It all goes down Saturday evening at 5 P.M. The third conference game for the Aggies, amidst the bright lights of sin city. You listen to the game on 92.3 FM Aggie Radio in Cache Valley.