Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Major League Soccer passes on Las Vegas; stadium deal dead

Stadium

Cordish Cos.

Artist’s rendering of proposed stadium.

Updated Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015 | 8:30 p.m.

Citing too much uncertainty, Major League Soccer officials said today Las Vegas will not get an expansion franchise for the 2017 or 2018 seasons, killing plans for a $200 million publicly funded downtown soccer stadium mired in controversy.

In a letter to Mayor Carolyn Goodman, MLS Commissioner Don Garber said the decision was related to uncertainty about when the league could move forward with plans in Las Vegas. That leaves Minneapolis and Sacramento as the two remaining cities in the running for MLS's last expansion franchise.

The Las Vegas City Council was set to approve a development agreement for the stadium next week, but the project could have still been blocked by voters during the June election, further complicating the timeline.

“Unfortunately, given the timing of our expansion rollout and the uncertainty as to when we might be able to move forward in Las Vegas, we are no longer considering Las Vegas as an expansion market until 2018,” Garber said in his letter.

In a hastily called press conference at City Hall following the announcement, the normally ebullient Goodman struck a somber tone.

"It's a very, very disappointing time for us," she said. "I'm always smiling, but I'm not smiling today."

Goodman said without a team the current plans for the soccer stadium are dead. She wouldn't commit to continuing her push for a stadium under different terms, but she said she still thinks a professional sports team would thrive in Las Vegas.

"I really knew this was the right thing for our city. With gaming all over the country how are we going to bring people to Las Vegas?" she said. "We have to keep doing new things."

The city had been courting the league with private partners from Findlay Sports and Entertainment and the Cordish Companies to bring a team to downtown Las Vegas.

The plan was to build a $200 million soccer stadium at Symphony Park, with about $100 million in city funds and land going toward the project.

Opponents of public funding for the stadium, however, collected enough signatures to put the issue before voters on the June election ballot, casting uncertainty as to whether the project would move forward.

It's also morphed into a political issue, with Councilman Stavros Anthony launching a bid to unseat Goodman as mayor in the June election based on her support for the stadium.

After working on the project for nearly a year, developer Justin Findlay said he was sad to see it end unsuccessfully.

"I'm a little bit down," he said. "When we went down this path we knew there were a couple of cities that were ahead of us. I think we did a great job of putting a package together that got us in the mix."​

Under agreements with the private partners and the city, a failure by the league to select Las Vegas means the stadium proposal is dead.

“The decision by the league ends the City Council’s consideration of a soccer stadium, and the exclusive negotiating agreement with the private partners will expire on Feb. 20,” the city said in a news release. “Now the city is able to consider other uses on Symphony Park.”

But some stadium opponents are skeptical this is truly the end of the city's professional sports dreams.

"The letter doesn't say no, it says not now," said Councilman Bob Beers, who led the petition drive to put the issue on the ballot, adding he doubts this is the last time a taxpayer-funded stadium will be proposed for Symphony Park.

Beers said the initiative blocking public funding for the stadium will remain on the June ballot.

"We need to have an authoritative statement by the voters," he said.

Anthony said he'll continue his push to oust Goodman over her support of the stadium.

"If Carolyn Goodman is elected mayor we could be talking about this again a year from now," he said. "If I'm elected mayor, I'm going to stop all discussions about a taxpayer funded stadium."

The city council will address what's next for the soccer stadium proposal at its regular meeting on Wednesday. If no action is taken, the city's exclusive agreement to develop the land signed in 2009 with Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. will expire, opening the door for new developers to pitch projects for Symphony Park.

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