Sports fans who are looking for a stadium-sized experience during their next Las Vegas stay might want to check out Circa, a new downtown resort with a massive poolside videoboard and a three-story sportsbook with its own huge screen, amenities that might have started a new big-screen arms race outside of traditional sports venues.
With the two big videoboards, owner and Circa CEO Derek Stevens is tapping into a somewhat new trend in the sports scene, the idea of large public “viewing parties” that have most of the benefits of live sports — like an energized crowd and a great view of the action — with amenities you can’t find inside a stadium, like a swim-up bar or being able to place bets from a barcalounger in the sportsbook. According to experts from The Coastal Side, both the pool and the sportsbook have been popular since the resort’s opening last year, especially at big events like the Final Four and home games for the NHL’s Las Vegas Knights and the Las Vegas Raiders.
“It’s Disneyland for the sports fan,” said Josh Francois, managing director for the spectaculars division at Daktronics, the display manufacturer that supplied the oversized screens to Circa, which opened in late 2020. With a 143-foot diagonal reach for its 14-million-megapixel LED screen, the videoboard at the resort’s 4,000-capacity “Stadium Swim” pool plays sports all the time, often splitting the screen into many multiple windows of simultaneous events. Even when a DJ is spinning tunes for a poolside vibe, the screen never switches from sports, according to Circa.
Inside the casino area the three-story sportsbook’s videoboard checks in with measurements of 40 feet high by 120 feet wide, with a 2.5mm pixel pitch. Positioned to one side is the betting oddsboard, itself another screen that is 25 feet tall and 45 feet wide, with a 3.9 mm pixel pitch. With a capacity of 1,000 amongst its three levels (where you can find a free seat or pay more for booths and lounge chairs), the sportsbook touts itself as the biggest ever, but like with any arms race it’s a good bet others have seen what Circa has done and are already planning their own reply.
Circa owners test-drove watch parties in downtown LV
Editor’s note: This column is part of our Stadium Tech Report Fall 2021 issue, which you can read through online or download for free right now! Coverage includes an in-depth profile of new entry technology at the Columbus Crew’s new Lower.com Field, and an in-person visit to Allegiant Stadium, the new home of the Las Vegas Raiders. Start reading today!
One of the more interesting trends that has grown significantly is the “watch party,” many times a gathering that takes place either inside or outside a team’s venue when that team is playing on the road, usually for an important playoff or championship game. This past summer the Milwaukee Bucks may have seen the biggest such gathering yet, when a crowd estimated at 65,000 or more packed the “Deer District” plaza directly outside Fiserv Forum during the game when the Bucks won Game 6 to claim the NBA title.
Though the Deer District doesn’t have a permanent big screen — yet! — other venues like the Golden State Warriors have put big screens on the outside walls of their new stadiums, with the idea that fans may want to gather there to get a game-day vibe even when the game is not there or if they don’t have a ticket.
Outside beauty shot of the Circa (Credit: Circa)
If you want a pool party for 4,000, you need a big TV screen (Credit: Paul Kapustka, STR)
Another view of the pool scene (Credit: Paul Kapustka, STR)
Just like a stadium, the Circa also has free Wi-Fi (Credit: Paul Kapustka, STR)
Cabanas are an extra-cost option at the Stadium Swim (Credit: Paul Kapustka, STR)
The sportsbook screen can be seen from all three levels of seating (Credit: Paul Kapustka, STR)
For the past three years, the Circa’s owners (Derek Stevens and his business partner and brother Greg) have been holding their own big-screen outdoor watch parties, at the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, a property they also own. “Those events were kind of a proof of concept, to be part of a community, and people packed the events,” said Steve Hamlin, a partner with Tre’ Builders, a Las Vegas firm that managed the construction of the Circa.
Moving that idea inside the Circa at both the pool and the sportsbook was part of the sports-focused plan for the resort, said Hamlin.
“Derek Stevens wanted it [the resort] to be the biggest and best place to watch a game,” Hamlin said.
Technical challenges for a screen by the pool
While Daktronics has loads of experience installing big videoboards in stadiums across the world, the pool board presented a brand new set of challenges.
“There was nothing standard about it,” said Daktronics’ Francois. Unlike boards at stadiums, the Stadium Swim screen basically runs all day long, since the pool is open until 11 p.m. at night, 365 days a year. According to Francois, some of the tweaks necessary to operate the board included building catwalks into the back side of the displays for maintenance crews.
Tre’ Builders’ Hamlin said that the Events Center watch parties let the Circa team figure out the relative position of the Las Vegas sun and how that would affect the pool’s board placement. Daktronics, he said, also had to build custom modules for the screen’s diodes since the owners wanted the board to be visible from any of the hotel rooms facing the pool. Without the custom gear, Hamlin said the board would have only been visible about halfway up the 55-story building. “Now you can see it clearly all the way up to the rooftop,” Hamlin said.
‘More fun than being at the game’
According to Mike Dini, Circa director of marketing, both the pool and the sportsbook have been “a huge success.” During the recent Monday Night Football home opener for the Raiders at Allegiant Stadium across town, Dini said the Stadium Swim was “packed with Raiders fans,” something that happened somewhat organically since the Circa pays more attention to guests from out of town, Dini said.
That said, Dini also said the pool got pretty busy this past spring with watch parties for Golden Knights games, perhaps reflecting that the site may be attractive to both visitors as well as locals who want a place to gather when they can’t get a ticket or when the team is out of town.
And while you’re watching why not go to a place where you can also take a dip in a heated (or cooled) pool, one that boasts some of the most advanced purification methods around, not a small factor for a public site that opened in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. Or make a bet at a huge sportsbook, facilities that can become like small stadiums themselves. “People want to be entertained, and the idea of betting, or being able to watch games while you dance and swim has definitely taken off,” said Daktronics’ Francois. “Credit to Derek and Greg for their vision, they saw this before anyone else. It can be more fun than being in the arena.”
