Mandalay Bay Just Opened a Dayclub Built for Game Day, Not Just DJ Sets

Tailgate Beach Club has landed at Mandalay Bay with three pools, a wraparound wall of screens, and a grand-opening set from Snoop Dogg, giving the Strip its first dayclub built around sports as much as sound.

A Different Kind of Pool Deck Shows Up at Mandalay Bay

For years, the formula for a Strip dayclub has been pretty fixed: a resident DJ, a pool full of foam and confetti cannons, and a lineup built around the electronic music calendar. Tailgate Beach Club, which quietly opened its doors at Mandalay Bay in late April before an official grand-opening weekend on May 16, tears up that script. This one is built around a different kind of crowd noise, the roar of a stadium.

The location does a lot of the storytelling on its own. Mandalay Bay sits at the south end of the Strip, practically in the shadow of Allegiant Stadium, and the new venue leans into that geography instead of ignoring it. Where most dayclubs are designed to feel like they could be anywhere with a DJ booth, this one is unmistakably a Vegas answer to the tailgate lot, just with better cocktails and a view of the Strip.

The grand-opening weekend made the point loudly. Snoop Dogg took the stage for the official celebration on May 16, and the operator framed the whole project around shared moments rather than any single artist or genre, with Clique Hospitality founder Andy Masi describing the goal simply as wanting guests "to feel every big moment together."

What You're Actually Walking Into

Strip capacity has a way of getting exaggerated in press releases, so it's worth sticking to what's actually been built. Tailgate Beach Club holds up to 2,000 guests across three heated pools, meaning it stays in rotation year round rather than shutting down once summer ends. Twenty-five cabanas and two premium bungalows give it a private-space count on par with established Strip dayclubs, and each comes stocked with distractions that have nothing to do with electronic music: PlayStations, beer pong, foosball, and ping pong tables.

The visual centerpiece is the screen wall, more than 125 feet of LED display wrapped around the deck so that a game is visible from the pool, a cabana, a bungalow, or the bar rail. It's less a single big screen than a 360-degree loop, built for the kind of crowd that wants to watch a fourth-quarter comeback without losing their spot on a lounger.

Food leans into the concept too. Instead of the raw-bar and bottle-service menu you'd expect at a typical Strip pool club, Tailgate leans into stadium comfort food: buffalo chicken tender sandwiches, mini Philly cheesesteaks, loaded nachos, sliders, and an all-beef hot dog piled with fries. It's a menu built for a three-hour game window, not a two-song set.

• Capacity: up to 2,000 guests
• Pools: three, heated year-round
• Private space: 25 cabanas plus 2 premium bungalows
• Screens: 125-plus feet of LED, wrapped for 360-degree viewing
• Hours: Thursday through Sunday, 11 a.m. until close, extended for marquee events

Where It Fits Next to Marquee and OMNIA

The Strip's existing dayclub scene is built almost entirely around the DJ calendar, big room house and EDM sets timed to daylight hours at places like Marquee Dayclub and the new OMNIA Dayclub across town. Tailgate isn't trying to compete on that turf. There's a DJ presence, but the programming is stitched around live sports and cultural moments, official Golden Knights watch parties, reality-TV premiere nights, playoff windows, fight cards, rather than a rotating cast of touring producers.

The BetMGM partnership is the clearest signal of that positioning. Tying viewing parties and rewards to a sportsbook brand is a move you wouldn't see at a residency-driven dayclub, and it points to who Tailgate is actually chasing: a crowd that wants a pool, a drink, and a game on, not necessarily a headliner. For a Strip nightlife scene that has spent the past few years stacking DJ residency after DJ residency, that's a genuinely different lane, and one worth watching to see whether other resorts follow with their own sports-first spins.

Getting In If This Is Your Kind of Night

Tailgate runs Thursday through Sunday starting at 11 a.m., with hours extending on marquee sports dates, so plan around whatever's actually on the schedule that week rather than treating it like a standard nightclub open. Cabana and bungalow bookings are the move if you're rolling with a group and want a private base with your own screen, and reservations tend to move fastest around big game days.

If you want the good sightlines without locking down a whole cabana, get there early on a marquee date. Capacity caps at 2,000, and a wall-to-wall screen setup like this tends to fill in fast once word gets around. Either way, this is exactly the kind of spot our list-holders ask us about, so if you want a table or cabana sorted before the next big Strip sports weekend, get on the list and we'll get you squared away.

8 Things to Know Before You Go

Before you book a cabana or just show up on a Saturday, here's the rundown on what's actually different about this one.

1. It's a sports dayclub first: Programming centers on live games, watch parties, and cultural moments rather than a rotating DJ residency lineup.
2. Hours are Thursday through Sunday: Doors open at 11 a.m., with extended hours on marquee sports dates.
3. Location is the whole point: It sits at Mandalay Bay, steps from Allegiant Stadium, on the south end of the Strip.
4. Three pools, not one: All three are heated, so the venue stays in rotation beyond just peak summer months.
5. Cabanas come loaded: Expect PlayStations, beer pong, foosball, and ping pong inside the 25 cabanas and 2 premium bungalows.
6. The screen wall wraps the whole deck: More than 125 feet of LED gives 360-degree sightlines from pool, cabana, bungalow, and bar.
7. The menu skips bottle-service standards: Think stadium comfort food: cheesesteaks, wings, sliders, and a loaded all-beef hot dog.
8. BetMGM has a presence: A tie-in brings organized watch parties and rewards perks tailored to the sportsbook crowd.

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