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By Dave Toplikar (contact) 
Thursday, July 15, 2010 | 2:08 p.m.
Oscar Goodman
Sun archives
- NBA team ‘under contract’ if Las Vegas builds an arena (7-14-2010)
- Detroit Pistons moving to Las Vegas? Don't bet on it (7-15-2010)
- Mayor: Downtown Las Vegas sports arena ‘very viable’ (6-24-2010)
- Strip sports arena has very little support (6-10-2010)
- MGM Mirage opposes arena options seeking public financing (5-18-2010)
- County wants arena details, says public money unlikely (4-6-2010)
- Cowboys Stadium poses Texas-sized threat to Vegas (3-21-2010)
- Jerry Jones says Cowboys, NFL will lift boxing (3-9-2010)
- New arena plans promise jobs but seek public money (3-4-2010)
- Rodeo rustler? Tourism officials worry Dallas Cowboys owner could steal Vegas event (3-4-2010)
- City OKs plan to study downtown arena, entertainment district (11-4-2009)
- Cordish projects include sports-anchored developments (11-4-2009)
- Goodman: 20,000-seat downtown arena could lure NBA team (10-29-09)
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman isn't quite buying it — he doesn't think an NBA team has actually inked a contract to come here if a new arena is built on the Las Vegas Strip.
Goodman, who is pushing for an arena in Symphony Park in downtown Las Vegas, expressed his skepticism today about a deal developers are taking to the Clark County Commission to try to woo the county to help finance an arena on the Silver State site that was home to the former Wet 'n Wild water park.
"A written agreement, I would find it incredible, that's number one," Goodman told reporters during his weekly press conference at city hall.
"But I've been wrong before and I would apologize if I'm wrong now. I just don't see it," Goodman said. "I mean, there may be whispers, there may be winks, there may be nods, but I just don't see an agreement."
Beyond that, Goodman backed off on making comments about the specific proposal being made by Chris Milam, CEO of International Development Management LLC, to the county commission.
The Sun reported Wednesday that Milam said "We have an NBA team under contract". However, Milam didn't name the team.
The deal hinges on the county agreeing to issue bonds to pay for the arena, then using tax increment financing to retire the debt on those bonds. However, the county would need to resurrect a county redevelopment district for that to happen.
Goodman said he didn't want his own enthusiasm for an arena to be misused.
"I'm not going to get involved with a discussion with Mr. Milam about that or to give some credence to the fact that Las Vegas is going to be building an arena so that some other city might be able to gain some leverage to have a newer arena built there," Goodman said.
"I've been there, I've done that. I've been doing it for about 10 years now," Goodman said.
"The bottom line is this, and I've said it all along: After I met with (NBA Commissioner) David Stern (two years ago) when we had the All-Star game here, he sat in my office and he said the ball's in my court, 'in Oscar's court,'" Goodman said.
"I said 'What does that mean, commissioner?' He says, 'If you are able to convince the owners that Las Vegas should have a franchise and you have an arena, I'm not going to stand in your way.' That's the first time he ever backed off his position that he did not want a team playing in a city that accepted wagers on sporting events, in particular, basketball."
Since that time, Goodman said he has talked to several NBA owners himself.
"I think they believe Las Vegas is a great venue for an NBA franchise. But until we have an arena, it ain't gonna happen," the mayor said. "And right now, I don't see anybody putting a shovel in the ground, even though I've tried to my utmost to get them to do it. And once that shovel's in the ground, I believe we will have a commitment. But until that takes place, I think it's just talk."
Although Goodman confirmed he had talked to some NBA owners, he would not confirm whether one of them was George Maloof, who owns the Palms Hotel Casino in Las Vegas and whose family also owns the Sacramento Kings.
"I'm not going to say who I talked to, it's not fair," he said. "I don't want people in Sacramento to lose any sleep over it ... I know a lot of the owners and I chat with them. And they're very high on Las Vegas."
Meanwhile, Goodman said the Cordish Company of Baltimore is still continuing to try to work on a plan to redevelop Las Vegas' downtown, using city-owned property to build not only a sports arena, but an entertainment district and new hotel-casino.
Goodman said that project could be funded with tax increment financing because it would be located in the city's own redevelopment district. That type of financing is already being used for several projects, including the World Market and the Ruvo Brain Institute, he said.
"But at this point in time, we're still apart as far as the differential as what a bond would be able to provide versus private funding," Goodman said.
"So, until that shovel turns, I think it's all speculation and I would hate to have the people in Detroit, for instance, lose one moment's sleep at this point in time, in fear that we're going to have an arena built which will take the Pistons away from them."
Goodman was asked by a reporter if Milam's efforts at the Silver State site are successful, what happens to the Cordish Company's study.
He said there actually was a study, which he said he doesn't believe, that showed the area could accommodate two arenas for two different kinds of activities, such as professional hockey or professional basketball.
Goodman said that getting a successful arena project would help him leave office next year completing his goal to make Las Vegas into a world-class city.
"This one is sort of out of my control," he said. "I think I've accomplished getting the NBA to concede that Las Vegas can have a team. And I really believe, with all my heart and soul, that we do need a first-class arena here."
He said the city also needs a new arena to be able to continue to host the National Finals Rodeo events in December and January and to host major fighting events.
Goodman was asked if he thought people who don't like public funding for private projects would be satisfied by TIF funding.
"I don't consider a TIF tax public funding," Goodman said. "That's really a little different. It's an area that isn't doing much that will have vitality. And you just take part of that vitality and use it to retire the debt. That's a good thing. That's what redevelopment is all about ... What other cities have done is they've reached into their pocket and put up the money. That doesn't work.... It has to be a partnership."
Yes please. Like I said before, I'll buy 2 season tickets for life. I'm sure there are hundreds, if not thousands in our 2 mil population that will do the same.
Ditto.
So that is how the brain institute got enough money to build such an ugly building.
There's nothing in the world so terrible as when a world-class architect decides to put a building in your city. Mucking up our beautiful faux-plastic-cityscapes with that kind of amorphous dreck. The nerve.
He should be skeptical. There is no contract. Why would any professional team come to Vegas? This is a transient community, not a good home for a pro sports team. It would be a flop.
I am with the Mayor on this one. I personally do not believe there is an agreement with a NBA team in writing. I think there is talk, but talk is cheap.
If they want public money then show us a contract. In that contract be sure there is a multi-million dollar penalty when you don't come up with the team to play in this arena that gets paid to the county.
As they say, Show me the Money!
Xcb,
The first time I saw one of Gehry's buildings I thought "My god, a satellite from space just crashed into that building." His buildings are all the same, they looking like crumpled or melting sheets of metal. It's crap...extremely expensive crap.
Tax increment financing is way to divert property taxes collected in a redevelopment area from being used for essential government services to benefiting individual developers.
If there is an arena project for an NBA franchise there will be an additional need police services associated with each event at the arena. And from the experience with the NBA All-Star game a few years ago, there was an additional burden for police service both at the game site and other sites in Las Vegas.
On the other hand, the kind of crowd a NBA franchise attracts will bring more "rain" to Las Vegas and God knows, we need more "rain"!
Come to think of it, Las Vegas is almost as large as Denver. And Denver has had the Broncos since the 60's, the Nuggets since the late 70's, and the Avalanche and Rockies since the early-mid 90's. Now compare Vegas and Denver with particular points in time.
I am a baseball guy but I would be far more than content if we have just the NHL and NBA here. Or even better, Mayor Goodman (or his successor) concedes the arena project to the Strip and shifts focus towards an MLB stadium at Symphony Park.
Unless and until Vegas lands a major sports franchise, the real potential that Vegas has may never be realized. I have a hundred dollars that says not anyone can name ten major U.S. cities that doesn't have a major sports franchise without using a search engine to look it up.
Birmingham Alabama
Anchorage, Honolulu, Portland,... Butte, Cedar Rapids,.... Springfield, Springfield, Springfield, Springfield and Springfield.
Easy.
just one is all I have
JDubs-
What have you been smoking? The Denver MSA is 2.7M compared to Las Vegas' 1.8M. 33% larger, much less transient, and far more affluent. The figure for Denver doesn't even include cities less than an hour's drive away including Colorado Springs, Longmont, Loveland, Boulder, and Ft. Collins. Add those in and you've got nearly 4M living within an hour of Pepsi Center, Invesco, and Coors Field. Only things an hour from LV are Boulder City, Pahrump, Overton, and Logandale.
The demographics in LV just don't add up for professional sports.
@Patrick_R_Gibbons-
I usually at least respect what you say on these boards, but to quote John Goodman in "The Big Lebowski"- "...you're out of your element!"
That building, as do all his buildings, convey an impression of the nature of what goes on inside. They reflect the nature of their purpose and make people stop and think about what they're seeing and what it might represent, not just in general, but to themselves.
My fiscal and political philosophies are strongly conservative, but my observations of how less independent thinking conservatives handle art serve as reminders to keep my thinking independent. An overly pragmatic mind will have great difficulty finding depths that can only be discovered by whimsey.
Oscar really does not have anything to do with it. That property is NOT IN THE CITY. That is a county deal.
Hopefully no one is going to get paid off to approve this deal and stick us with the bill again.
Time will tell.
If the put Oscar's name on it, he will be 100% in support of it.