The National Hockey League and the NHL Players’ Association agreed to terms of an expansion draft, clearing a primary obstacle to a franchise making its home in Las Vegas.
Businessman Bill Foley is the driving force behind trying to bring an NHL franchise to Las Vegas, and a local drive already sold more than 14,000 season tickets for a possible hockey franchise. The team would play at the new T-Mobile Arena.
The expansion draft terms assuage the players’ union’s concerns regarding a potential expansion draft by protecting players who have no-trade and no-move clauses in their contracts.
The terms exempt players with such no-trade and no-move clauses from being drafted by expansion teams. Teams also can exempt one goalie and up to 10 other players.
Las Vegas and Quebec City are the two candidates for NHL expansion teams, but the NHL has not voted to expand, yet. The new agreement with the players’ union makes it more likely that the league will expand by at least one team.
If one team is added, each existing team could lose no more than one player. If two teams are added, each team could lose up to two players.
While Las Vegas might be closer to landing an NHL team, casino mogul Steve Wynn says it’s likely the Oakland Raiders will come if a $1.4 billion domed stadium is built on the UNLV campus and across from McCarran International Airport.
Wynn says he recently discussed a potential move to Las Vegas with Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis, and Las Vegas Sands President and COO Rob Goldstein says Wynn was the first to suggest building a domed stadium during a meeting with Las Vegas Sands’ principal owner Sheldon Adelson a couple years ago.
Davis recently told the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee he would put up $500 million toward the estimated cost to build the proposed 65,000-seat stadium, if a public-private consortium can cover the rest of the cost.
Early proposals mostly call for raising room taxes by less than 1 percent to pay for stadium construction, but many casino owners are wary of raising room taxes, when visitors already pay an average lodging tax of 12 percent and an average $29 resort fee on the Las Vegas Strip.
Room taxes currently generate about $600 million per year, with about 40 percent of that total going to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to drum up more tourism and business. If the Raiders put up another $500 million, that would leave up to $200 million that casinos might provide.
Approving an increased room tax requires approval by the Nevada Legislature during a special session called by Governor Brian Sandoval. Since tourists would pay the increased tax, it’s likely Nevada lawmakers would rubber-stamp any reasonable proposal.
Wynn told the Associated Press “If there’s a will, there’s a way” to make the Las Vegas Raiders a reality, and said it just comes down to whether or not 24 NFL team owners would approve the move and coming up with a funding mechanism.
