Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Dean Juipe: Stadium construction blitz expected to come by this fall

TWENTY OR 30 years from now, the 2-plus million residents of the Las Vegas Valley might very well look back at 1996 and think of it as the year the city went absolutely crazy building sports facilities. A huge motor speedway, a gigantic domed stadium, a massive spring training complex, a sprawling equestrian park and arena ... if everything goes up as planned.

The Las Vegas Motor Speedway is already under construction and will be open for business by September. The price tag for that 107,000-seat structure is $72 million.

The 85,000-seat downtown domed stadium still has its skeptics. But the man behind the project, Paul Tanner, opened an office in town Friday and said groundbreaking for the $420 million project would go as scheduled in August.

The spring training complex continues to be a topic at Henderson City Council and Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority meetings. The 130-acre parcel near U.S. 95 and Gibson Road will cost a fortune, maybe eight figures. Estimated costs for development -- a minimum of 12 playing fields will be needed -- range from $20 million to $58 million.

And the equestrian complex in North Las Vegas at Craig Road and North Fifth Street is still a go, project coordinator Brent Lovett confirmed last week. Despite delays, he's looking to break ground within 90 days for a multifaceted development that has a $55 million price tag for the first phase.

Set aside the question of whether the valley needs all these stadiums. The point today is that it looks like they'll all be built.

"We're on track," Tanner said of the domed stadium. "I'd say we're pretty far along and right about where we thought we'd be from day one. We might slip a week or two into September, but I still hope to break ground in late August."

The domed stadium continues to evolve, and a confidential source said Disney might get involved, perhaps as a hotelier.

"Obviously I can't comment on that one," Tanner said. "A whole lot of people have expressed interest in joining us in the project. But as of now, we're going ahead on our own."

The Dallas businessman, heading a 45-person group that would build the stadium, has indicated an interest in a National Football League franchise. An alternative: a permanent Super Bowl site.

Either way, the stadium will be immense, its amenities first-rate.

"I'm still trying to refine some of the numbers, but in terms of cubic footage, this could be the largest structure ever built," Tanner said. "I don't necessarily believe that yet, but we've got some interesting statistics relating to the structure. It appears as if it will be roughly 450 feet high by 1,200 feet."

Not quite as big but gigantic in its own right is Lovett's planned equestrian facility. Drive by the site today and you won't see anything but barren ground, yet he said financing is proceeding through escrow and the project will be under way soon.

"We're very close on having everything in order," Lovett said. "I see the light at the end of the tunnel."

The principal arena will seat 17,000 and can be expanded to 30,000. Plans call for three additional outdoor arenas that will seat another 3,500. Lovett's group paid $9 million for the land and has allocated $55 million for development.

Target date for completion of the first phase: June 1998.

Lovett said he already has 35 smaller rodeos booked and will aggressively begin courting two major events once ground is broken. He has his eye on the National Finals Rodeo, which has a contract with the Thomas & Mack Center through the year 2000, and the Volvo World Cup, which Las Vegas Events announced last week it was attempting to secure for the year 2000. In the initial SUN story on the latter event, Las Vegas Events indicated it would place the Volvo World Cup in the T&M. Lovett, however, has other ideas.

"My eyebrows went up when I read that story," he said. "That's an event that would be fantastic for our facility.

"But I wouldn't approach Las Vegas Events -- just as I wouldn't approach the NFR -- until we're building and have a firm opening date. I can't sell somebody a drawing."

(In an attempt to retain the NFR and add the Volvo meet, the T&M is also considering an 8,000-seat expansion that would have a $35 million price tag.)

Build, build, build. If each of the parties involved stays its course, the sports-building frenzy in Las Vegas will be in full bloom by this fall. And no city in America will be more inundated, more overwhelmed, by state-of-the-art stadiums than this one.

A generation from now, those doing the building will be lauded as geniuses or criticized as fools. They're paying their money, taking their chances.

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