Many of you know that I have a hobby travel YouTube channel called Poko Traveler, which I sometimes end up blending with Cleveland Browns content. This past weekend, I traveled to Las Vegas for my third-ever Cleveland Browns road game. Here are a couple of videos of my adventure.
This first video shows the Bellagio Conservatory being decked out for the Christmas season — always a treat to see:
The past few years, the F1 race has taken over the Las Vegas Strip. When I booked the trip to see the Browns
vs. Raiders game, I didn’t realize that the race would be taking place on Saturday (a day before the Browns game). That meant there were higher special event rates at some of the parking lots during the weekend, as well as more congestion along the Strip between the Bellagio and Treasure Island. The track also wrapped around over by The Sphere. Friday Evening, though, I did get to technically drive within part of the track, which you can see here. Some of the construction in general of the track can be seen here.
Saturday evening, I went down to Fremont Street in Downtown Vegas to get some treats at Pink Box Doughnuts. While walking down Fremont, I captured this little Browns vs. Raiders clip on themed merchandise.
Last, but not least, here is the video showing my experience outside of Allegiant Stadium before the game on Sunday, passing through the tailgate lots, walking inside the stadium, and a couple clips of the game and the aftermath. It wasn’t as good of a video as the ones I’ve done the past two years in Los Angeles and Denver, because I was taking my step-kids to their first NFL game and they aren’t into walking around and exploring nearly as much as I do, so I had to compromise a bit. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy it, including seeing Shedeur Sanders’ first career start and his deep ball to Isaiah Bond from my perspective:
A few observations:
- To avoid traffic, before the game, we parked at the Pinball Hall of Fame and walked about 20 minutes. I’m surprised that no one else seemed to be taking advantage of that, and it was perfect for our situation of getting in and out of the area before and after the game.
- The Tailgate lots seemed nice still, but everything was pretty spaced out and seemed way more sparse than the ones I experienced in Los Angeles and Denver.
- Security was being a stickler. My one step-kid had a small clutch purse that was maybe a quarter inch wider than permitted, and they would not allow it in the stadium. They also told me I could not bring my camera in, and checked with several chains of supervisors, who still said no. I politely debated them, though, explaining how it does not do what their signs said (i.e. it does not extend, it’s not a selfie stick, it’s not a 6” lens). The initial supervisor indicated it was fine, but some dude dressed in a red shirt (no idea who he was) from the background kept saying ‘no, that can’t come in, it’s NFL policy.’ He didn’t have a good explanation when I told them no other stadium has had an issue with this. One person also told me I could bring in my empty water bottle, but I had to throw my cap away before entering, to which I was just so puzzled with and laughing as I tossed the cap away (but no one else had to throw theirs away in my party). Inconsistency as usual. I would have tried another gate if I had been traveling alone.
- The view from our seats was great, and there were lots of Browns fans. From our view, you could see outside to Excalibur and MGM Grand.
- We had a great sign about Myles Garrett having a Thanksgiving Feast. Lots of fans wanted to take pictures of it and were loving it. We were hoping it’d appear on TV, but we were probably too high up for the cameras to capture it.
- They had live music playing in between breaks and at halftime by the big torch in the stadium.
Let us know if you’ve been to Las Vegas for a football game or any other road stadiums recently, and how you made a trip of it. Below is an album of some of my weekend adventures in Vegas (step-kids not featured, but my brother and my daughter are).
