Stadium on track despite Caesars buyout

Friday, July 16, 2004 | 9:23 a.m.

A Harrah's Entertainment Inc. official said Thursday that his company's proposed takeover of Caesars Entertainment Inc. should not affect a private effort to build a stadium behind two Caesars properties.

Las Vegas Sports and Entertainment (LVSE) LLC, if it can lure the Montreal Expos to Las Vegas, hopes to construct a $420 million, 40,000-seat, retractable-roof stadium behind Bally's and Paris Las Vegas.

Because of Major League Baseball's rules that prohibit gaming entities from owning teams or stadiums, Caesars would act only as a landlord of the building.

"We really haven't looked closely at the ancillary issues," said Harrah's spokesman Gary Thompson. "Having said that, I can tell you that Caesars will continue to operate their business as they see fit. We don't anticipate this deal to close within a year.

"I don't know of any discussions between Caesars and the Expos. I don't know what they've been up to. But I'm sure it's something they'll continue to (explore). ... We're for anything that is beneficial to the city."

Caesars officials have had no direct talks with Expos or MLB executives. They negotiated its plan with LVSE nearly a year ago and is awaiting MLB's decision about the Expos. Only then will it proceed with LVSE.

"No (expletive) clue," said a Caesars executive, who requested anonymity, on how the casino merger might affect a future stadium deal.

Should shareholders of both companies and regulators approve the mega-deal, which was struck Wednesday, Harrah's would become the world's largest casino company, with more than 50 casinos, comprising more than 41,000 rooms and approximately 100,000 employees.

LVSE has been lobbying MLB's nine-member relocation committee to land the Expos, as have groups from other candidate cities that include Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia and Norfolk, Va.

Mike Shapiro, a consultant for the San Francisco Bay Area-based Centerfield Management Group, has served as the LVSE point man in its negotiations with MLB's relocation committee for more than a year.

Thursday, he was in Las Vegas to conduct a television interview.

"I don't see any connection at all," Shapiro said of how a Harrah's-Caesars merger might affect LVSE stadium plans. "I can't imagine, right now, what that might be. Again, I think they need to go through their process. I don't know what to tell you.

"We haven't talked to anyone ... (but) we don't feel there (would be) any impact at all. We can't speculate, but all systems are go."

In the 125-page proposal he sent to the relocation committee two months ago, Shapiro detailed LVSE's plans to fully fund the stadium's construction with private financing.

Merrill Lynch investment banker Peter M. Hoffman and Pembroke Development president Robert Blumenfeld, both based in Manhattan, are two key players in the stadium proposal.

Hoffman has not returned calls seeking comment, and Blumenfeld has declined numerous interview requests.

Baseball's 29 other owners are in their third season of operating the troubled franchise. A decision on the Expos' new home is expected to be rendered by the end of the next quarterly owners meeting in Philadelphia on Aug. 19.

After the team is relocated, MLB will then work on assembling an ownership group. Randy Vataha, of Game Plan LLC in Boston, has told the Sun that he could tap into a deep group of eager financiers to form a capable Vegas baseball ownership group.

"It's way too early to speculate," Shapiro said, "but we have no information and we have had no information whatsoever about any potential impact."