I went into the Vegas show with my eyes open after having sifted through the messageboards here. Renting a car was not a realistic option for us (my wife is not comfortable at all in large metro driving and I don't drive). We chose the bus option and leaving at 4:20, it took almost 2 hours to get to Sam Boyd and leaving 3 songs early got us 2.5 hours back. I wasn't expecting a 20 minute jaunt to the grocery store, but 4.5 hours? This is hardly my first time to the rodeo as far as a stadium U2 show or other concert or sporting event for that matter.
The logistics of getting in and out of Sam Boyd are aweful and that venue is clearly not prepared for an event the magnitude of U2 (I assume UNLV football games draw very poorly). Had those that manage public transportation for the region been smart enough to come up with dedicated nonstop buses that ran from Sam Boyd to at least near the strip, they could have made a windfall and helped alieviate much of the congestion (instead you've got tourist waiting in line for a local bus route feeding quarters into the meter....at least be smart enough to have the driver handling cash sales to get a large quantity of people ON the stinking buses efficiently for a special event...I mean how hard is it really to set the special event rate a flat $2 and give the bus drive a fist full of dollars to make change?). You easily could have charged $10-15 bucks a head for a nonstop shuttle to the strip and taken many people that rented cars out of the traffic and parking clutter not to mention dramaticly reducing the demand for taxis. Hell a smart bar or restaraunt anywhere around the strip, should have come up with a shuttle bus to draw customers before and after a game (I've been to Miami and Denver specifically to see NFL games and caught FREE shuttles to and from the games from local bars). I think what this boils down to, a facility like Sam Boyd that rarely sees an event the magnitude of U2 clearly does not know how to deal with it from the lack of any practicle experience.
In the end, seeing a U2 show made all the crap worth the trouble. Next time I do a U2 road trip, it won't be Vegas though.