Companies still tinker with funding formula
Blake Cordish, vice president of the Baltimore-based Cordish Companies, will come to Las Vegas to muster support for the company’s controversial soccer-stadium project, proposed for Symphony Park in Downtown Vegas. Cordish and Findlay Sports & Entertainment say the stadium would enable them to attract a Major League Soccer expansion franchise to Las Vegas. Some voters aren’t convinced they should help to pay for it.
The partners say they will spend $102 million to acquire and start the team, and $44.25 million toward the stadium. Taxpayers would foot much of the bill, and contribute $155.75 million toward the stadium. But Cordish and Findlay would cover 59 percent of the stadium costs through annual rent and payments at the end of the 30 years, they say.
The city would raise $3 million in annual hotel room taxes and sales tax revenue from a special tax district near the stadium to help cover its share, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The Cordish-Findlay partnership already has plenty of support among city officials; Mayor Carolyn Goodman, for one, is on record as supporting the proposal.
Justin Findlay, managing partner of Findlay Sports, said the developers are still fine-tuning the financing. “We are exploring multiple options to reduce the risk for the city of Las Vegas with regard to our project,” he said.
And in a statement from the Cordish Companies, officials said they “have and will continue to listen to any questions pertaining to the deal and will work hard to address them. For example, we are actively working with the city to come up with a structure that will lessen the city’s public funding in the stadium and still retain a viable business model.”
