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rroyo: I think infrastructure, that is one of the reasons
Awe are here. I have been fortunate to be around a lot
of places, and all the teams I have been with, all the mar-
kets I have been in, all the levels of football, the marketers I
have been around. The Boone Pickens, the Phil Knights, the
Fertittas, the people that have put their stamp behind some
things…and I say that because I have seen how infrastruc-
ture and market value of college sports, how a team and a
city can really play a hand in the success and ability to do
things that at one point maybe you weren’t able to do not
given those modalities. A stadium like this, a 2-billion-dol-
lar stadium that is in town and a 40-million-dollar brand
new Fertitta Complex helps the infrastructure of our pro-
gram exponentially.

Having Allegiant Stadium as our home stadium is a big
deal. It’s our field that rolls out, we don’t play any games
in Sam Boyd. It is a big deal, and it wouldn’t be there if it
wasn’t city funded. They have made a commitment, it shows
a commitment in a market that is very timely. We are in
probably the fastest growing sports market in the world
right now. There are cities in this country that would cut
their right arm off to try and get a pro football team and for
us to get one here in two years is just unheard of. There is
a lot of market value in what we do, a lot of money gener-
ated from it. They said you couldn’t recruit here when I was
thinking about this job, there weren’t many people that said
go do it. More people said you can’t recruit there, they don’t
have the facilities, there is no culture. We have shattered
every academic record, we have had zero issues off the field,
we have shattered the recruiting here. We have had the top
one or two classes in both publications the last two years.
Part of that is the infrastructure. The other piece of that is
the staff we have recruited. They are all family men. There
are 60 years of Power 5 football in our building, 11 years of
NFL Coaching, there are 70 players in the NFL that these
guys have coached, there are Super Bowls in this office,
there are first round draft quarterbacks, NFL rookies of the
year. There is a lot of really good success and pedigree in
the building. I say all that because they are good people,
they are good coaches. All the buildings in the country are
hollow without good people.

56 LAS VEGAS GOLF & LEISURE SUMMER 2021 www.lasvegasgolfandleisure.com