The plan to build a new 65,000-seat stadium in the southern Nevada desert in order to entice the Oakland Raiders NFL franchise to relocate to Las Vegas could be in jeopardy due to a disagreement between the want-away team and casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.
Monday saw Nevada governor Brian Sandoval sign legislation into law that could potentially bring in up to $750 million for the planned $1.9 billion stadium via a new 0.9% hotel room tax. It was hoped that these funds would subsequently be joined by $650 million from 83-year-old Adelson alongside $500 million from Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis, which was to include a $200 million loan from the NFL and the likely proceeds from the sale of the new venue’s personal seat licenses.
However, a report from the Reuters news service alleges that Adelson, who is Chief Executive Officer for Las Vegas Sands Corporation and the 15th richest man in America with assets of around $30 billion according to last year’s Forbes 400 list, is now prepared to walk away from the scheme unless terms being offered by the California team do not improve.
“I negotiated to bring in the Oakland Raiders, an NFL football team from Oakland, because they don’t have a stadium there, that I would build a stadium and rent it out to the Oakland Raiders,” Adelson reportedly stated during a travel technology conference in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.
The institution of the hotel room tax drew criticism from taxpayer groups and some labor unions and Adelson reportedly declared while is Israel that problems have now emerged in negotiations with the Raiders franchise.
“They want so much,” Adelson stated. “So I told my people, “Tell them I could live with the deal, I could live without the deal. Here’s the way it’s going to go down. If they don’t want it, bye-bye”.”
Reuters reported that Adelson subsequently declined to elaborate on his remarks and the Boston-born billionaire has explained in the past that any such new stadium could also host concerts along with mixed martial arts, boxing, college football and Major League Soccer events while he hoped to offer casino and hotel operators the opportunity to package their rooms featuring “prime seats” in the ground.
September saw Kansas City-based designer Manica Architecture and Adelson release a proposed design for the hoped-for stadium featuring a retractable roof, raked seating and leisure areas. Regarding the location of the development, two sites are reportedly being considered comprising a compact plot across Interstate 15 from the Mandalay Bay Resort And Casino alongside a second and larger parcel that would include parts of the nearby Bali Hai Golf Club.