Raiders Stadium Total Construction Costs = $1.8 Billion (Sound Familiar?)

By ALAN SNEL

LVSportsBiz.com

 

It’s turned out the construction bean counters/estimators for the new Raiders stadium were on the money with the projected cost of the palatial new 65,000-seat football playground to open in Las Vegas in 2020.

 

The Raiders have been telling the public the project would be $1.8 billion to build the domed stadium with the rolled-in-tray of playing surface grass and $100 million for the team’s training center in Henderson near the Henderson Executive Airport.

 

And you know what? That’s exactly how much the stadium project will cost, according to Thursday meeting documents posted by the Las Vegas Stadium Authority on its website Wednesday. Yup, $1.8 billion —  more than than the costs of new NFL stadiums in Atlanta and Minneapolis and less than the new one being built in Los Angeles for the Rams and that other tenant, the Chargers.

 

For those curious about the “guaranteed maximum price” of the construction, that number is just a hair under $1.4 billion — or $1,398,900,999 to be exact.

 

 

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Minneapolis-based Mortenson and McCarthy Building Companies are teaming up to build the much-ballyhooed $1.8 billion stadium for the Raiders, an NFL team receiving a record $750 million public subsidy from Southern Nevada. A hotel room tax was created under 2016 state legislation to raise money so that Southern Nevada could give the Raiders the subsidy and prompt the team to move from Oakland to Las Vegas.

 

As you can see from the documents, about 10 percent of the $1.8 billion has already been spent on the project on 62 acres on the west side of I-15 across the highway from Mandalay Bay in an industrial neighborhood at Russell Road and Polaris Avenue. So, the rest of the stadium construction expenses will be about $1.62 billion.

 

 

 

And here’s a breakdown on those construction expenses:

 

$1.33 billion for construction

$234 million for design, engineering and soft costs

$123 million for stadium, furniture and equipment

$77.8 million for land purchases

$31 million for stadium infrastructure and equipment

 

 

And who’s paying for this? Well, the Raiders are bringing $850 million to the party, including a big loan from Bank of America; the Southern Nevada public is giving $750 million (though you will have to raise about $1.1 billion over 30 years to pay back the bonds that will soon this spring.); the Raiders’ NFL G-4 contribution is $200 million.

 

UNLV’s football team will also use the Raiders stadium and there’s a deal for that, too.  The Nevada state Regents signed off on that Jan. 19.

 

There’s not much drama for Thursday’s stadium board meeting. Stadium consultant Jeremy Aguero is expected to read about two dozen stadium agreements. And if past history is a guide, the stadium board will move the agreements along with little discussion.

 

No matter what the construction costs turned out to be, SB1 (Senate Bill 1) maximized the public subsidy at $750 million.

 

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