Every Super Bowl Sunday, thousands of gamblers head to the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino, the largest of its kind in northern Nevada, to bet on the big game and party with fellow football fans. High rollers dine on all-you-can-eat buffets and the champagne flows in V.I.P. rooms throughout the massive complex. Long lines snake out of the William Hill Sportsbook just off the casino floor.
But the action this year was supercharged because the Super Bowl included the San Francisco 49ers, and many of the team’s fans in California, where sports betting is still illegal, crossed the border into Nevada to lay down bets and celebrate with their brethren.
Some of the fans considered traveling to Las Vegas, where the Super Bowl was played for the first time this year. But they did not want to battle the crowds only to pay daunting prices for hotels and meals. Reno may lack the buzz of Las Vegas, they said, but the self-proclaimed Biggest Little City in the World had the benefit of being affordable and convenient, roughly a four-hour drive from the Bay Area.
“I could have gone to Vegas, but everything’s hiked up there,” said Daniel Burnett, a 49ers fan from San Francisco who stayed the weekend at the Grand Sierra. “Here, everything’s in one place.”
Everything, it seems, but a 49ers win. They fell to the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime, 25-22, leaving many San Francisco fans at the casino stunned, and a few in tears.
Still, it was like Nevada’s Super Bowl overflow party with a decidedly more low-key vibe. The casino hotels in Reno do not have the fountains that grace the Bellagio on the Vegas Strip. Few people come here for midnight helicopter rides. What happens in Reno doesn’t always stay in Reno. But for regulars like Jacob and Nicole Wood, two Raiders fans who drove four hours from Clearlake, Calif., Reno is just fine.
“No way I’m paying $11,000 for a ticket in Las Vegas,” Mr. Wood said. He and his wife, who also bets on horseracing and basketball, have watched the Super Bowl in Reno for a dozen years.
In many ways, the Super Bowl highlighted anew the gap between Las Vegas and Reno. Las Vegas is an international entertainment capital known as the setting for movies like the “Ocean’s” and “Hangover” franchises. After years of being shunned by professional sports leagues, the city is now home to the Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights and the Raiders of the N.F.L.
Reno? Many casinos have shut or merged. Downtown is pockmarked by open lots. Sports? There’s a Triple A baseball franchise, the Aces, and the National Bowling Stadium. And while Las Vegas continues to market extravagance and excess, Reno, which is less than one-quarter of the size, seems forever at a crossroads. The cities remain rivals, especially when they battle for funding in the state capital, Carson City, 30 minutes south of Reno. But when people think of Nevada, Las Vegas typically springs to mind.
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