There’s a new contender to be the site of a new Oakland Raiders stadium in Las Vegas, according to the people who own the land:
Representatives of Red Rock Resorts Inc. on Thursday confirmed that the Wild Wild West Gambling Hall & Hotel, about a half-mile west of I-15, is in the running as a potential site for the stadium proposed as a public-private partnership by Las Vegas Sands Inc., Majestic Realty and the Oakland Raiders.
That could work, sure: It’s just across I-15 from the Strip, which would make the stadium’s planners happy, and it has 58 acres of space with nothing much more than a Days Inn (with casino) on it, so it could easily fit a stadium plus surrounding development. Of course, nobody knows what Red Rock would want for the property, but hey, it’s only money, right?
And speaking of only money, the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee meets again today to debate whether to provide the $750 million in public subsidies that Sheldon Adelson and Mark Davis are asking for (really $1 billion) or the $550 million that the committee has proposed (really $950 million). Try not to get too excited over the outcome — the real decision will be when the Nevada legislature decides whether to throw whatever vast sums of money the committee has proposed at Adelson or Davis, which won’t be for a while yet.
Well the first domino fell this morning when the Fertittas sold their stake in the UFC for a reported $4 billion. It’s no secret around town they want in on the Raiders and is willing to finance the stadium deal themselves if necessary. They own that land and for decades wanting to monetize it. Everything the Fertittas has done up to this point (taking their casino operations public yet again, buying Palms Resort for pennies on the dollar, the UFC sale) has led to this.
Adelson and Majestic better be careful to not overplay their hand on this one, because if they assume the Fertittas only want to lease their land (they’ll never sell it under any circumstances) to Adelson et al. in building a $1.6 billion stadium they got another thing coming. They are going to have to cut the Fertittas in on this on every single level.
Source for this, other than “it’s no secret around town”? “Willing to finance the stadium deal themselves” raises my eyebrows, unless the Fertittas are insane.
Give me a few to properly source it. I do know on local radio and some people who are affiliated with the UFC the Fertittas have been hoarding cash to get in on the Raiders deal.
Cool, thanks!
Seconded. Have yet to see reports that the Fertittas want to buy an NFL team, but it was an open secret w/in the MMA community that they were selling b/c they want to bring the NFL to Las Vegas.
Building their own stadium makes a lot of sense, too. It would take away Adelson’s excuse for stripping the Convention Center of renovation money. Not sure if the Fertittas hate Adelson, but very sure that MGM does.
It’s not a terrible location, I wonder if the new owners of the Palms are also going to get the city to tunnel S Valley View Blvd so they can have direct access to their new stadium, especially since Harmon & Polaris Ave are both dead ends…
I-15 and Tropicana will be a madhouse when neighboring T-Mobile Arena starts hosting NHL games or concerts on the same night as Raider games.