A proposed .3 billion stadium project in Las Vegas might become a reality soon, with the Oakland Raiders playing home games there.
Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval says he met with Raiders owner Mark Davis earlier this month to gauge his genuine interest in relocating the team to Las Vegas.
Sandoval told the Las Vegas Sun he came away from the meeting “incredibly impressed” that Davis is serious about moving the NFL franchise to Las Vegas.
For the Raiders to relocate to Sin City, the team would have to overcome the league’s anathema to Las Vegas and its legal sports books, and have at least 24 team owners vote in favor of the move.
Spurring talk of the Raiders relocating to Las Vegas is the University of Nevada-Las Vegas last year buying a 42-acre parcel of mostly vacant land located on the north side of Tropicana Avenue and just west of the university.
The parcel is located less than a third of a mile from McCarran International Airport and roughly along the landing and takeoff airspace for one of its runways.
The FAA is looking at the proposed stadium site, and UNLV hired Virginia-based consultant Capitol Airspace Group, which reported the proposed 200-foot-tall, 65,000-seat stadium should not be a concern for airport operations. The group said only a small portion of the proposed stadium area would have use restrictions due to FAA regulations.
While use restrictions likely would apply to a small area of the stadium site, the group’s report indicates there is ample room along the western boundary of the property to house the stadium, leaving more room for parking and smaller support structures in the remaining area.
McCarran generates some $28 billion in local economic activity, and local officials do not want a stadium to impact its operations.
Las Vegas Sands principal shareholder Sheldon Adelson since has proposed building a $1.3 billion stadium on the site, which would require a large amount of public funding. Early estimates place the public’s contribution to the proposed stadium at $780 million.
A new stadium is a likely component of the ad-hoc Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee’s upcoming recommendations to Sandoval and the Nevada Legislature. If approved, taxes on tourism-related activities likely would provide the public portion, but some casino operators oppose increasing room taxes to pay for it.
If a stadium were built, UNLV would play its homes games there, instead of in the antiquated Sam Boyd Stadium, which is located several miles east of the university and generally regarded as one of the worst stadium venues in the county, mostly due to its age.
