Two professional sports leagues are eyeing Las Vegas, and the decisions may be made soon.
Whether or not the NHL will award a franchise to Las Vegas, or expand at all, likely will hinge on league decisions made this month.
The NHL’s Board of Governors is slated to meet on June 22 and decide on whether or not the NHL would expand, by how many teams, and whether Las Vegas or Quebec City would get one or both potential expansion franchises.
Prior to the start of game one of the Stanley Cup Finals, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters the league likely would do one of three things.
He said the Board of Governors might approve one or two new teams for the 2017-18 season, hold off on expanding until 2018, or indefinitely freeze the expansion process and end all talk of it.
Before the Board of Governors meets, Bettman said the nine members of the NHL’s Executive Committee will weigh proposals and likely make a recommendation to the board.
Businessman Bill Foley wants a Las Vegas franchise playing at the T-Mobile Arena, and already has more than 13,000 pledged season ticket holders ready watch NHL hockey in Las Vegas.
In addition to approval by its Board of Governors, two-thirds of NHL team owners also would have to okay expanding the league and awarding a franchise to Las Vegas or Quebec City.
Bettman said he’s recently spoken to Foley and representatives of the Quebec City team bid and told both a decision most likely will be made this month.
Bettman also said a potential Oakland Raiders move to Las Vegas has no bearing on the NHL’s decision.
But that decision must be made soon.
About the only certainty regarding a proposed 65,000-seat indoor stadium that eventually might be home to the Raiders in Las Vegas is that nothing is certain.
Initially proposed as a $1.3 billion project for building a stadium with a retractable roof on 42 vacant acres the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, proposals and pricing continue evolving.
The latest suggestions have ballooned the stadium’s price tag to $1.6 billion, including building a football practice facility, and, if the stadium ever is built, it might be on the site of the former Riviera Hotel & Casino.
The Las Vegas Visitors Authority bought the Riviera two years ago and is razing to make way for an outdoor exhibition space and expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson wants the stadium built and says Las Vegas Sands and development partner Majestic Realty would put up $150 million toward the construction cost.
Oakland Raiders team owner Mark Davis has pledged another $550 million toward the stadium’s construction and says he’ll move the Raiders to Las Vegas if the stadium is built.
Despite initial studies showing a football stadium is feasible on the UNLV campus, officials for Las Vegas Sands now say that location, which is located on the north side of East Tropicana Avenue and across from McCarran International Airport, is too close to the airport and would cause traffic problems.
Now, they suggest building it on the Riviera casino property, and Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority President and CEO Rossi Ralenkotter said a cooperative effort that includes using the stadium for convention space might work.
Another suggestion would build a stadium on Sahara Avenue at the Las Vegas and Clark County border.
But building the stadium would require at least $750 million in public funding – if Las Vegas Sands and the Oakland Raiders can come up with their pledged funds.
Current funding proposals don’t include the cost of buying land, and the UNLV site might negate the need for land-acquisition funding due to the university’s desire for a new stadium.
Construction costs alone would require an about $1 bump in the daily room tax, which would generate an estimated $50 million per year toward stadium funding.
Other private organizations might contribute between $240 million and $540 million toward stadium costs, according to the ad-hoc the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee. The committee has spent the past year reviewing potential infrastructure improvements and is slated to make recommendations to Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval this summer.
A stadium proposal likely is high on its list, particularly with aging Sam Boyd Stadium on the far east side of Las Vegas being located many miles away from the UNLV campus and Sam Boyd Stadium generally ranking among the worst stadium venues in the United States.
But if a stadium is to be built in time for the Oakland Raiders to make commit to moving to Las Vegas, local officials have about eight months to get solid proposals underway.
The Raiders currently have a one-year lease to continue playing at O.co Coliseum in Oakland, with options for two more years. That means Las Vegas would need to secure a location and build the stadium within three years in order to continue entertaining thoughts of hosting the Raiders.
The Raiders also would need to obtain the approval of 24 of the leagues 32 team owners for a move to Las Vegas, and the team says it needs to make that decision within the next eight months and have league approval if it is to make a move in three years.
The NFL and team owners in the past have worked hard to avoid any connections with gaming enterprises in order to preserve the game’s integrity. That has left Las Vegas in the lurch when it comes to hosting even exhibition events related to the NFL.
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, though, says gambling isn’t the issue with the potential Raiders move to Las Vegas.
The American Gaming Association recently reported every current NFL stadium is located within an hour’s drive of a legal gaming casino.
Goodman says Las Vegas has a strong history of regulatory compliance, and gambling issues never have been raised when discussing a potential Oakland Raiders move to Las Vegas.
The only real issue, she says, is whether or not a stadium can be built in time to accommodate a pending move by the Raiders, and whether or not NFL team owners approve it.
