Las Vegas Sands President Rob Goldstein appeared before a Nevada economic committee touting the benefits of a .3 billion, 65,000-seat stadium that would serve as a site for UNLV football, and, he emphasized, an NFL team.
“We’re dead serious about this,” said Goldstein. “We may fail. We’re not saying this is simple. It’s complicated stuff, but it’s damn worth the effort.”
While Goldstein didn’t indicate how much public funding LVS wanted to complete the deal, sources says it’s almost $800 million. LVS said a new room tax could be implemented to pay for the public share, and stadium consultant Mark Rosentraub said the stadium would generate $46 million in new tax revenue each year, even without an NFL team.
While Goldstein admitted that luring an NFL team to Vegas would be difficult, he pointed out that he and LVS owner Sheldon Adelson have already met with Mark Davis, the owner of the Oakland Raiders, about relocating.
Officials with MGM, which is opening a privately funded 18,000-seat arena next month, disagree with using public money for the stadium, saying it needs to be used to expand the Las Vegas convention facilities.
“We’ve got a world-class convention crowd that comes here, we don’t have a world-class facility, and we need one,” MGM President Bill Hornbuckle said. “We want to make sure this group stays focused on that.”
UNLV President Len Jessup supported the LVS plan, saying it would elevate the school’s status, build a better football program and improve the students’ game-day experience.
However, Nevadans support building a stadium and expanding the Las Vegas Convention Center, but they don’t want to pay for it, two polls indicate.
Polling firms Global Strategy Group and Morning Consult each conducted polls regarding public attitudes for a convention center expansion and proposed stadium project in Las Vegas.
Morning Consultant reported overwhelming support for the idea of building the stadium and bringing an NFL franchise to the city to play in it, but Global Strategy said Nevadans want an earmarked room tax to pay for a stadium development and not the general public.
Global Strategy also reported only 25 percent of Nevadans polled thought a stadium project would benefit the public. By contrast, it reported 57 percent said expanding the convention center would be beneficial.
The polling results were released two days before the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee was slated to meet in March. The committee previously said it supports building a stadium in Las Vegas to improve its tourism appeal.
Although noted for its gaming and entertainment opportunities, the only football stadium in Las Vegas is the aging Sam Boyd Stadium, which is located about seven miles east of the Las Vegas Strip and generally regarded as one of the worst stadium venues in the United States.
The site for the stadium was recently purchased by UNLV, 42 acres of vacant land located west of the university and north of McCarran International Airport on Tropicana Boulevard.
The ad-hoc infrastructure committee also supports a new stadium to replace Sam Boyd Stadium, which is nearly 40 years old, and will make recommendations to Governor Brian Sandoval this spring.
While there is a good chance a stadium proposal will be among its recommendations, a potential funding fight looms and might kill any plans.
“There’s a lot of unanswered questions,” Clark County Commission Chair Steve Sisolak told the Las Vegas Review Journal. “We need to determine how much some of this is going to cost and how we’re going to raise this revenue, if it’s even possible.”
