Sports Arenas Can Be Effective Election Sites, Finds Study Co-led by UMD Researcher

Four years after the Las Vegas Raiders moved into their sleek new home in 2020, the team used Allegiant Stadium to forge a deeper connection to the community—one that extended beyond the NFL team’s fans.

By transforming the facility into a polling location during last November’s general elections, the team effectively called a blitz: 4,200 voters flocked in, far surpassing any other polling station in Clark County. The festive atmosphere with mascots, cheerleaders and music drew significantly younger and more first-time voters than other voting locations, according to a report released Monday, co-led by the University of Maryland’s Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement (CDCE), which analyzed the effects of using sports arenas as election sites. 

During the 2020 election at the peak of COVID-19, 48 professional sports facilities morphed into polling stations, an experiment that earned bipartisan praise. Last November, however, very few teams repeated the act; Allegiant Stadium was an exception.

The Las Vegas case study reveals “a unique and politically neutral way to welcome new voters,” said Michael Hanmer, CDCE director and professor of government and politics who coproduced the report with Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation.

Among their findings:

• 35% of Allegiant Stadium voters cast their ballot for the first time, compared to 20% elsewhere in Clark County;
• Voters at Allegiant were, on average, 10 years younger than those at other locations;
• Stadium voting did not advantage any single political party;
• The sports-like vibe enhanced voters’ and poll workers’ experience.

The initiative offered a strong argument that professional sports teams can use their platforms to strengthen democracy, the researchers said.

“Allegiant Stadium provided not just a voting site, but a celebration of civic participation,” said co-author Tova Wang, director of research projects in democratic practice at the Ash Center.

The findings build off a 2022 CDCE paper showing that stadiums and arenas provide accessible and efficient alternatives to traditional voting sites because of their infrastructure, parking, proximity to public transportation and crowd management capabilities.

In a supplemental data report released alongside the new study, Hanmer and co-authors offered further findings:

• Just one-third of voters who turned out to Allegiant Stadium had participated in three or more previous elections, compared to 58% of non-Allegiant voters in Clark County in 2024;
• 4.5% of Allegiant Stadium voters registered to vote on Election Day, compared to just 0.7% of non-Allegiant voters;
• 52% of Allegiant Stadium voters were 18 to 39 years old while 52% of non-Allegiant voters were 50 and older;
• 36% of Allegiant Stadium voters identified as neither Democrat nor Republican—10 percentage points more than non-Allegiant voters.

“These patterns are consistent with the hypothesis that voting at Allegiant Stadium was attractive to non-traditional voters and broadened the appeal of voting,” Hanmer said.

Last year’s decision to open Allegiant Stadium as a polling station was made by the Raiders, NFL, Clark County Election Department and Nevada Secretary of State’s Office.

"Creating an opportunity to vote at Allegiant Stadium was about more than football—it was about giving Clark County voters a place to come together, make their voices heard and celebrate the democratic process," said Sandra Douglass Morgan, president of the Las Vegas Raiders.