Route 66 Casino Hotel unveils remodeled sports bar, featuring state-of-the-art Caesars Sportsbook

Many small towns and businesses along historic Route 66 are prepping as the Mother Road’s centennial next year quickly approaches, and Route 66 Casino Hotel’s new sports bar is joining the ride.

Stadium 66 Sports Bar, a newly remodeled dining, bar and sports betting space inside the casino, will make its public debut with a grand opening on Thursday. The opening comes after a year of renovations.

“It’s exciting. We’ve felt a need from our guests to have that space available,” said Gary Murrey, the COO for Laguna Development Corp. “It was designed for those game enthusiasts, and it offers the best food and beverage experience.”

Laguna Development Corp., created in 1998, is owned by the Pueblo of Laguna and is responsible for pursuing ventures that strengthen the Laguna community and economy, including managing and operating the Route 66 Casino Hotel, which is about 20 miles west of Albuquerque at 14500 Central SW in Rio Puerco.

The Route 66 Casino first opened in 2003 and a 154-room hotel was added in 2007, according to Murrey. The roughly 10,000-square-foot Stadium 66 space has transformed several times over the years, serving as a lounge bar, a nightclub and a sports bar.

It was about 15 months ago when the corporation decided the space needed a facelift. They closed the space and began renovations in August 2024, including new floors, wall coverings, a new entry point into the casino and a kitchen remodel featuring new walls, floors and ceilings.

“So, quite a bit of effort in the visuals. The footprint itself, we didn’t change a lot,” Murrey said.

The renovation work, led by Klinger Constructors LLC, wrapped up last month.

“The team at Route 66 is incredibly excited to finally open Stadium 66 Sports Bar and sportsbook after months of menu development, service training, food and drink testing, and event planning,” said Route 66 Casino Hotel General Manager Adrian Fox.

Stadium 66 can seat up to 250 people and features nearly 40 high-definition televisions, a roughly 20-foot-long bar, stage, full-service restaurant and a state-of-the-art Caesars Sportsbook, which is a sports betting space that comes with five betting kiosks and five live betting windows.

The sportsbook’s expansive wagering options make it “one of the premier sports wagering venues in the Land of Enchantment,” a news release said.

The bar, which Murrey said has “always been a focal point of the venue,” features several craft beers and new signature cocktails with the opening.

The restaurant is reopening with a renewed emphasis on fresh ingredients and handmade dishes, a quality Murrey said is not often found in mainstream sports bars.

“We have spent quite a bit of time refining the offerings from our handmade bread for our sandwiches to our hand-tossed dough for pizzas,” Murrey said. “The recipes for our pizzas are as authentic as we can make them.”

In addition to the wood-fired pizzas, the restaurant offers wings, pastas, calzones, the casino’s World-Famous Green Chile Stew and its Centennial Burger, a green chile smash burger the casino is offering in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Route 66 next year.

The new sports bar is a part of a larger renovation and growth plan the corporation has facilitated leading up to the centennial. In recent years, the corporation has revamped its concert venue, Legends Theater, and the Thunder Road Steakhouse & Cantina, as well as added a new Laguna Burger, the corporation’s growing burger chain, to the property.

Stadium 66 Sports Bar was the “next natural progression” in the series of upgrades, Murrey said.

Murrey declined to share the cost of the project, but said the group is “really proud” of how the space came out, adding the corporation aims for it to offer the “best game experience a sports fan can ask for.”

The space will employ roughly 36 people, all newly created jobs. The corporation plans to bring a variety of programming to the space, such as comedy, karaoke and small band nights. They expect to kickstart such events in the space later this year, Murrey said.