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Las Vegas National Sports Center
A rendering of the proposed Las Vegas National Sports Center three-stadium complex in downtown Las Vegas.
Published Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011 | 3:17 a.m.
Updated Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011 | 8:28 a.m.
Proposed location of complex
Related Document (.pdf)
Sun Archives
- UNLV athletic department sees on-campus stadium as a game-changer (2-1-11)
- Developers put early plans for UNLV stadium, retail district on display (2-1-11)
- Regents to hear UNLV arena plan for football, basketball (1-31-11)
- Mayor: UNLV domed stadium wouldn’t conflict with a downtown Las Vegas arena (1-27-2011)
- Report: UNLV domed stadium plans will be unveiled Tuesday (1-27-2011)
- Goodman: Arena project a key issue for next Las Vegas mayor (1-20-2011)
- UNLV acknowledges effort to bring stadium, football to campus (1-19-2011)
- Mayor: Sports arena ballot petition 'irrelevant' to city arena efforts (11-18-2010)
- Symphony Park targeted for sports arena (11-12-2010)
- Mayor: American League team says no to Las Vegas (8-26-2010)
- Mayor: Without public funding for arena, Las Vegas won't get NBA team (7-22-2010)
- 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)
A downtown sports complex proposal with three stadium venues has surfaced with a familiar name leading the effort.
The $1.57 billion Las Vegas National Sports Center plan includes a proposal for a 17,500-seat arena for basketball and hockey, a 9,000-seat partially enclosed baseball stadium and a 50,000-seat partially enclosed football stadium. The baseball and football stadiums could be expanded to 36,000 and 75,000 seats, respectively, to host Major League Baseball and the National Football League.
The proposal, developed by International Development Management LLC, the Romani Group and general contractor Turner Construction, would be located in downtown Las Vegas on 70 acres northeast of the World Market Center near the Spaghetti Bowl freeway interchange of Interstate 15 and U.S. 95.
International Development Management (IDM) is the same company that had proposed building the Silver State Arena on the former site of the Wet ‘n Wild water park near the Sahara hotel and told members of the Clark County Commission last July that a National Basketball Association team was “under contract” to play in the arena if it were built.
The investment group said it would seek lease agreements with UNLV to allow the school’s football, basketball and baseball teams to play in the facilities for $1 a year to provide a new downtown home for Rebel sports.
The proposal – and a four-page report discrediting an on-campus domed stadium plan announced last week by Majestic Realty Co. – surfaced four days before the Board of Regents are scheduled to conduct a special meeting on the domed stadium.
It was unclear whether representatives of IDM would address regents in the public comment portion of the special meeting Friday at which the regents will discuss the merits of the Majestic plan outlined Thursday by the company’s owner, Ed Roski, and president Craig Cavileer.
Roski, whose company was a partner in the construction of Los Angeles’ Staples Center and is part owner of the NBA Los Angeles Lakers and National Hockey League Los Angeles Kings, also owns the Silverton Casino Lodge in Las Vegas.
His domed stadium plan at UNLV is one piece of a bigger proposal that would include construction of campus housing, a new retail component and the refurbishing of the aging Thomas & Mack arena that houses UNLV basketball.
Roski unveiled the plan under the name UNLV Now and the proposal has the backing of UNLV President Neal Smatresk. Roski and Cavileer declined to estimated the cost of their proposal, saying it was too early to pinpoint details.
The 40,000-seat domed stadium would bring Rebel football to the campus for the first time. Games are played now at Sam Boyd Stadium 7½ miles from the university.
But IDM’s report criticizes several aspects of the UNLV Now plan:
· The company questions whether it would be appropriate to pledge donations to the university and funds raised by alumni to back stadium construction bonds at a time when university budgets are being slashed by the Nevada Legislature.
· The company questions whether officials at McCarran International Airport and the Federal Aviation Administration would green-light a domed stadium construction a half-mile away from the north end of McCarran’s Runway 01. “Based on publicly available data provided by the FAA from prior determination of non-hazard (documents) issued in the immediate area, it’s unlikely that the FAA will permit any building height greater than 100 feet above ground level in the area west of Thomas & Mack Center. A stadium dome typically peaks 185 to 225 feet above ground level.”
· Swenson Street, a primary exit for traffic from McCarran, would be cut off with the UNLV Now proposal. The cost of relocating the street “would entail costs that only a public body could carry,” the report says.
· The company questions the dependence on retail sales in a specially formed improvement district to generate taxes that would be pledged against construction bonds at a time when other retail centers are failing.
· The company also questions whether UNLV could sign an exclusive negotiating agreement with Majestic without a competitive bid process.
While IDM criticized the Majestic proposal, questions also abound for the Las Vegas National Sports Center.
The arena proposals are dependent on having professional sports tenants. IDM estimates the basketball-hockey arena would cost $20,000 per fixed seat, plus 30 percent for “soft costs” including interest and other financing expenses. The gross bond amount is estimated at around $486 million.
The baseball stadium would have hard costs of $5,000 per seat for AAA and collegiate baseball and $10,000 per seat for Major League Baseball refinements, resulting in an all-in cost of $60 million for a small stadium and $470 million for a building with Major League amenities.
A $10,000-per-seat estimate also was attached to the football stadium, resulting in a total cost of $560 million.
IDM envisions hundreds of premium seats within the 17,500-seat arena. The company is proposing six court-level “bunker suites” holding 20 people per suite, 56 luxury suites – 36 holding 16 people and 20 holding 12 – two “ultra lounges” holding 192 people per lounge, 20 loges with four seats per loge and two lower bowl club areas with 2,450 seats.
The baseball stadium would have 30 suites and a 750-seat club area. The expansion to 36,000 seats would add 60 more suites.
The football stadium would have 25 suites and two lower-bowl club areas holding 3,500 seats. With an expansion to 75,000 seats, there would be an additional 300 suites.
Both the baseball and football stadiums would be partially enclosed with tensile roof structures.
IDM says the stadiums would be privately financed and no new taxes or tax redirections would be necessary to build them. Officials anticipate construction beginning in October with completion by October 2013.
IDM CEO Chris Milam floated the Silver State Arena proposal on the Strip last summer, but abruptly withdrew it when residents of the Turnberry Estates towers complained that the arena would produce too much traffic in their neighborhood.
Milam said he had an NBA team ready to sign up to play in the arena, but city leaders became skeptical when the likeliest prospective teams indicated they didn’t have any plans to move to Las Vegas.
Luring an NBA team to Las Vegas has been high on Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman’s priority list and many local residents became interested when the NBA played its all-star game in Las Vegas in 2007. The NBA Summer League also plays in Las Vegas.
But Commissioner David Stern has said Las Vegas wouldn’t get an NBA team until it builds a quality arena. He also has expressed concern about Nevada casinos taking wagers on NBA games.
Major League Baseball also flirted with Las Vegas in 2004 when the Montreal Expos relocated its franchise to Washington, D.C., and became the Washington Nationals.
Keep your eyes on your wallets folks.
"The company also questions whether UNLV could sign an exclusive negotiating agreement with Majestic without a competitive bid process."
This is a fair question.
Turrialba & dipstick: I agree with both of you - NO TAX DOLLARS should be involved in this specious project. Sports teams have been proven to not grow the economy or provide additional jobs as they merely siphon money & jobs from one sector of the private economy to another and that other is well connected and very rich! Let them use their own money to compete with other businessmen & women. No "welfare" for the rich however it is presented!
"There "might" be some private money, but you can bet the Las Vegas taxpayer will pay. I think the sun "rag" wants this."
In the past couple weeks we have heard a lot of talk about private money behind these projects, but we have seen precious little of it. The only money we have seen is the tax zone proposal for the UNLV project that doesn't have a price tag. Folks that is public money and a black hole.
Show me the private money.
THREE arenas for teams that don't exist! I can't wait to see the plans detailing where we'll park our flying unicorns.
Sounds great! Let's do it. Just don't ask me to pay for it!
Sounds great. Id help pay for it with taxes. It will expand the economy and create jobs. That is how it works Nevada. You have to invest to get a pay out.
Too many proposals and too little action. Trains and stadiums, they are all just talk...
If UNlV isn't going to have an football stadium on campus, we might as well just keep the status quo
Monorail II
Nick,
Okay, send your $5,000 to the state now. That is your share!
We can set up a lottery to pay for the stadia !!!
At this point I will believe this is all possible when I actually see a completed project... The UNLV project too... I think they would be great for Vegas, but it is not even worth getting excited about...
It seems we keep getting teased with stadium proposals but nothing ever get started...
Its like going to a strip club... You get a little bump and grind, but leave frustrated and unsatisfied...
The Vegas version of Field of Dreams.
Just what they need a partially domed stadium when it is 120 degrees out or there is a thunderstorm.
We should have a tax on anyone that proposes a stadium.
Tiger Mike:
You want to contribute nothing and just TAKE. You are what we need less of. The day of free health care, cheap gas, cheap food, and housing is ending. Learn to do something besides living off the rest of us.
Yeah lets squeeze a venue that seats 76,000 people in the center of a city and have no parking nearby to handle it. The freeway cant handle it either. Arent we surrounded by open desert? People dont go to Cashman during the heat why would they go here? Another outside company trying to push their way into Vegas to build and run!
I think people are far too enamored with video poker and slots to actually attend sporting events, but something on the far south side of las vegas blvd seems to make more sense to me then downtown.
.
Just my two cents.
There are so many problems with this proposal, where do you begin? Parking! Financing? Who pays for this? How will you fill the arena? What, we build and then we seek occupancy!
Over the last three years Las Vegas residents have grown smarter (many of us are hopeful) and will not allow this project to go forward. This is insane!
I'm waiting for some official to claim this to be a jobs program to get people back to work. Never mind the fact there's no demand for it. If this idea gets traction the jobs card will be pushed to the front of why it needs to happen and all of the reasons not to do it will get drowned out.
If it's such a great idea there ought to be a host of rich guys pooling their money to build it.
In 20 years, I'll be sitting on the beach, drink in hand, and there will STILL be no new stadium or professional sports franchise in Las Vegas. Dream on!
Why would UNLV sign a lease on the new stadium if it's a comparable distance from UNLV as Sam Boyd through what will surely be worse traffic? And how does it keep the NFR and PBR in town?
Nick,
You criticize me for wanting everything for free and just take, but what are these stadium developers asking for? Public tax payer handouts and free land. Aren't they just taking and getting things for free?
If this was a $1.5bn enterprise zone for hi-tech businesses with 50-100,000 full-time well paid jobs I would gladly support the project.
But these stadiums cost tax payers a $1bn and create 100 part-time concession/usher jobs.
Nick, I will say again. If you adore this project, invest your money in it. This isn't a responsible civic project that is worthy of tax payers money.
So the tax payer gets to foot the bill, and then pay hundreds of dollars to see a game?
Is Paul Tanner involved in this again?
Remember how Dave McCann and the writers from both papers got scammed by this last time?
Turrialba said it best!
No way public monies should be spent on this or any other project. Folks our state is in a severe budget crunch and cant even continue to educate our children. I for one am not willing to endure or support any public offical who would support this proposal during this time.
Secondly, BRING ON THE PRIVATE MONIES!!! That would transform Las Vegas. Imagine a Super Bowl here...
Would the monorail go out to these stadiums or will it continue to underserve the strip only?
Has the mayor toasted this proposal yet?
Ed--It is 11.30 AM, I am sure the mayor has toasted it several times by now.
Are these people on drugs? I'd like to know so I know which ones to stay away from.
Where are the 25,000+ parking spaces for this proposal? In looking at the pictures, there is no parking space provided at all.
The one thing I don't see in the rendering....Parking!
Are they using the Wrigley Field model (very little on site parking)? Or maybe they can extend the monorail?
The 2 year construction schedule can be best described as "very optomistic".
Of course, due to location, the big game can be called "The Spaghetti Bowl"!
Chunky says:
We need this about as much as we needed City Center a year ago.
We need butts in beds or at blackjack tables... NOW not ten years from now!
That's what Chunky thinks!
At 40,000 seats, the proposed UNLV campus football stadium is too small and there was no mention of expansion capability in that proposal. At least this football stadium is 50,000 seats and can be expanded to 75,000. Plus, a downtown stadium will not eat up more parking on UNLV campus, which doesn't have enough parking.
Parking Lot--isn't that what the highway is for?
C_Bess, you are right about Seattle. When they imploded the king dome, they still had a $50 million mortgage on it. We were there fir a Mariners game a couple years back (at the new stadiun). $30 to park! And for that, you get a little card telling you they are not responsible for any loss or damage.
No to the stadiums. UNLV should focus on improving its academic standing, not sports rep. And save the tax breaks for manufacturing & research companies willing to set up shop here -- we don't need a white elephant sports complex.
This proposal seems to have been thrown together quite hastily - there is no parking, plus the baseball stadium (with its concave roof) looks like a giant bed-pan.
I have been a big proponent of arenas and stadiums, but this is one I just cannot stand behind. First off - the new UNLV Stadium proposal seems very realistic and is being proposed by someone who has built stadiums before.
What do we know about this company. Oh yeah, they have failed to produce on their last arena concept. So I doubt tripling the size of their original concept will help. This seems to be too much smoke-and-mirrors to me. They probably just want to derail the UNLV project (very sore losers).
One more thought - doesn't Cordish own the rights to develop that land? Looking on the map that appears to be Symphony Park.
Here's a parting thought - if we made companies pay $1 million dollars per stadium proposal we'd soon have enough money to just build one. (I am joking on that last part)
The only thing realistic about the UNLV proposal is the request for public support through incremental tax revenues. Everything else, including the price tag for the UNLV project, is not known or wasn't announced.
NLV-Indep13's comments were right on target.
Vegas is at a perilous time in its history. With casinos opening everywhere, you really have to wonder if this town has any future. An idea like this is utterly ridiculous. There aren't even any NFL, MLB or NBA teams here. All these leagues are looking at actually cutting back teams. Everyone knows this city can't support a professional team.
This is a joke. Please don't allow it to happen.
Negative Nellie's;
Can't you see the future? Based on the drawings, this will be stainless steel and we can have cooking expositions, human skin burning training and since there is no parking, contests to see minimum time for a pedestrian to die from the sun reflection. They are calling Cowboy stadium the death star and this could be Vegas' death bowl!
Besides, based on the site, it would require another $1 million payout to Cordish for them to keep doing nothing.
Look at the pictures! There is a considerably large section labelled as parking.
I'm not for this proposal btw, I'm just pointing out that parking is a part of the picture.
One problem is the sports that are most likely to relocate, are the ones most likely to fail. MLB would not work. There are too many games and the one game built the most on tradition. It would be lucky to average 10K a game. NBA is the next most likely. Again, too may games. Does have an outside sot of working. NHL teams barely make it, and never make it in warm cities.
The NFL would most likely work in a town like Vegas. It's the most popular sport. only 8 home games a year, but Roger Good(y two shoes)dell would never allow a team in Vegas. If a team is going anywhere it will be LA.
So building 3 stadiums is just an idiotic proposal.
It is ok if it is TOTALLY privately financed. Maybe Obama's buddy Stevie Wynn should build it. Seriously, maybe Goody-ell could be bribed to advocate that it become the permanent home for the Super Bowl. Otherwise maybe you could have the largest Gentlemen's Club in the world - Club Oscar!
Do not take UNLV sports off campus. Sam Boyd is a mess with football, and taking everyone out to Henderson. I know it's not as far as Henderson, but taking sports off campus just add to the commuter unlv already is.
Nickname for the baseball stadium: The Bedpan
to htownreb (david),
I did take another look at the pictures, and it seems that the huge parking lot you see is on the other side of the highway. Are the fans going to have to play dodge-em getting to the stadiums?
Looks like someone stepped on a big soda can, why don't the make them look like the gal from the star wars bar room scene instead?
@lampshade, yes, this one is incredibly ridiculous. Building a three-stadium complex in a city where the residents are notoriously hostile to publicly funded stadiums, that gives professional league commissioners nightmares at night, that is in a recession/depression that it may never recover from, is RIDICULOUS. Casinos want to build wherever they can now! Gone are the days where people actually had to drive more than a few hours to go to one, or fly! Vegas actually wants to charge premium prices now for everything!
I mean, if David Stern is scared witless about putting a team in Vegas, that should say everything. He would put a team in Afghanistan tomorrow if he could. There's no way this is ever happening.
Look at the history of similar projects in other cities. I believe nearly everyone of them has cost the taxpayers money and they don't live up to the hype.
... pipe dream ...
All that separates this project from actually happening is $1.57 billion dollars.
If the $1.57 billion is all private money, nothing from the taxpayers then I say let them build it.
There will be construction jobs for the two years it takes to build and then jobs for events and taking care of the place.
Let them have at it if they have the money but I am betting there is no money lined up for a project like this at this time.
You can bet the unions will be pushing hard for this project......so don't declare it DOA yet.
If you look through the photo gallery there is a place marked as parking - its currently the SEI complex, along with the homeless shelters and a recently expanded Las Vegas Mission. Its basically the area between US-95 east of the bowl, I-15 north of the bowl, and the UPRR. Lots of parking, but then you have to walk under the 95 to get to the stadiums.
Too much too soon. Make a deal for one stadium based on a team moving into the city. Over time we can expand the project in the future. I like to see a basketball or football team. Basketball has more games and would provide more jobs, but a football team would probably do pretty freaking good considering it's in a tri state area. People from Nevada, California and Arizona would come to the games to watch their teams play in Vegas and spend some money in the casinos while their at it and hit up the clubs. Football will do well here. Basketball is my fav, but I see gold in a football team.
None of this is privately funded. About the only thing I have seen thus far from the UNLV and this proposal is how developers spend other people's money. Sales Tax Revenue Bonds and the like. Let's see some private money.
The boys at UNLV are floating this on the back of STAR (sales tax revenue) bonds. This proposal doesn't look much different.
I see the public in the public-private partnership, but thus far little private.
Wow! The money may be getting tight, but there is no shortage of "21st Century bad ideas" in Las Vegas.
But there is a symmetry...empty bank accounts, empty houses, empty job market and now...
...future EMPTY STADIA!!! You go, Vegas!!!
Turrialba, the Brakeout in Las Vegas package is done.
It's delivery time...and time for something a little more realistic than sports stadia.
brakeout2011 at yahoo.com should get a response within a week, depending how quickly B.G. can read and absorb...and decide what to do.
But geez, almighty! These boys & their toys...
How is this location considered Downtown? Is the airport located Downtown?
LV taxpayers may want to remember when San Antonio built the Alamodome in the Nineties to attract a NFL team that was 100% relocating if the stadium was built per the Mayor. Local taxpayers approved the tax increases. Two decades later, the Alamodome stands empty except for few High School football games.
Let's see, how many arena and stadium proposals does this make? What a crock, none of these will ever be built and we will lose NFR to Dallas.
It would seem that this group who has not been able to get anything done (See Silver State Arena)... Must be truly threatened by the UNLV Now proposal...
My guess is that UNLV Now has some real legs... IDM seem to be threatened by that to the extent that they want to make sure that they block the Regents from approving it...
They have been working that Silver State Arena for years, trying to get tax payer dollars for it and have been shut down left and right.... Now all of a sudden a guy like Roski throws his hat in the ring and manages to get a meeting with the Board of Regents, then all of a sudden they have this well thought out plan for downtown that can be completed by 2013... I bet they have a bridge for us as well...
I thought downtown was in an exclusivity contract with Cornish group and they were already doing feasibility studies... Did they just get railroaded? I don't know this just reeks of disgusting politics...
Lets just hope that if the UNLV Now deal does have real legs that will involve no tax payer involvement, that these guys do not have the ability to block it with politics to the point where we never see either...
Justsayin...
I absolutely agree... There is no way we should be building with "promises"... All it takes is for these teams to use LV as leverage, which is exactly what happened when the Expos moved... We were a bargaining chip, and nothing more... There is no way we should get ourselves on the hook for a stadium without a contract fully executed from a pro team... And even then the taxpayer should not have to put up the financing for it... Which with their pay per seat mentality that is exactly what this proposal is doing...
I think this is why these guys are threatened by the UNLV Now proposal... Roski and Co. are not even attempting to play up the pro team aspect... They are just looking to give existing events a bigger more modern venue, give an existing team a newer home, and possibly lure a few more events here that have a real possibility of making their way here (Pac-12 championship)... All while giving back in a huge way to UNLV in the way of student housing and faculty space... They are asking for taxable sales on the improvements and leasing of land that is not in use currently, a lot like how they financed the T&M in the first place... Seems to me like IDM should be extremely threatened...
I read in the other rag (RJ)that one of the regents announced that he would not vote for the UNLV plan. The regent said something about it being a no-brainer after looking at the material and the analyses.
ChickenLittle, the UNLV proposal isn't about giving back, it is about taking away. Taking away 150 acres or one-third of the campus with a lease, $100 million in Alumni contributions and incremental tax revenue in the neighborhood to fund the bonds. LOL. Show us the money Roski and Company.
If people want to see something at UNLV let's open it up for bidding. None of this non-bid stuff.
Let's see if there are better deals out there which don't fleece the public, students and alumni.
Why hasn't anyone mentioned the entertainment complex, DORMS which are badly needed at UNLV. One of the main reasons UNLV feels like a commuter school is because there are not enough dorms and things are too far away from campus. Look at any major university like Auburn, or SEC school they play their sports on the campus. Not 7.5 miles away from campus. UNLV has the 18th highest attendance of BBall games. Why would you want to take that away from the campus? The UNLV NOW project only helps to build a better community which is directly linked to quality of life and community involvement of community's surrounding that institution.
The Mendenhall practice facility that was donated to UNLV is going to benefit the BasketballBall program greatly. Wouldn't having a Domed football/ Basketball arena also help?
This town doesn't have the money nor the population to support a major sports team. It's funny that the build it and they will come mentality seems to be overriding common logic. At least the UNLV plan is asking it's Alumni to donate. Also note that this plan isn't a two year plan. It's a phase plan it's two years for phase one. It won't be ready to host a major sports team till who knows when. Also note the UNLV NOW plan has a larger seating capacity for basketball. This plan is 1000 seats smaller then the current facilities at the Thomas and Mack. UNLV now plan also includes parking garages.
When is this town and people going to learn that the casinos need to start chipping in since they are the largest and biggest here. They have the lowest tax rate of any casinos in the US. Pennsylvania taxes their casino's at 50%. So your telling me that a .25% raise of taxes on the Casinos would hurt at their current tax levels? or the mining industry that is causing all sorts of environmental issues and not giving anything back to a system that gives them huge profits?
I think the population and government here needs to sort their priorities.
Ralston published the LVNSC executive summary on Monday, which hammers the UNLV proposal.
The section analyzing the UNLV proposal is really off the wall--a hack job. Where are the revenues from the stadium in this mess. If they want to distort the dialogue they have.