By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
He was credited with giving the Raiders-UNLV stadium negotiations a “kick in the ass” a year ago to get that deal done, while he was among the local leaders and first responders on the ice during an emotional pre-game ceremony at the Vegas Golden Knights’ first-ever home game Oct. 10, 2017 at T-Mobile Arena.
Nevada’s governor-elect — Democrat Steve Sisolak — is a major sports fan of both the Golden Knights Raiders and Las Vegas’ first-ever professional sports team and its future major-league NFL sports franchise in 2020 have a close and supportive friend in the state’s top executive government office.
Sisolak defeated his Republican opponent, Attorney General Adam Laxalt, to succeed Republican Governor Brian Sandoval, who did not endorse his fellow Republican in the close race. It was also an unusual governor race because the public never saw Sisolak and Laxalt in the same room to debate each other during their campaigns. Sisolak outpaced Laxalt, drawing 49 percent of the vote compared to Laxalt’s 45 percent.
Sisolak, the county commission chairman of Nevada’s biggest county, was a major supporter of the $750 million public subsidy given by Southern Nevada to the Raiders to help realize their $1.8 billion stadium project on 64 acres on the west side of Interstate 15 between Russell Road and Hacienda Avenue.
Another stadium subsidy supporter was Sandoval, who signed the stadium bill in 2016 that paved the way for the 65,000-seat, fixed-domed stadium.
LVSportsBiz.com launched its website in June 2017 with a story on Sisolak’s penchant for supporting the Raiders and the Golden Knights. In fact, Sisolak even used Golden Knights footage in one of his campaign TV spots.
Sisolak also snapped a selfie with Golden Knights President Kerry Bubolz.
And he also posed for a photo with Golden Knights owner Bill Foley at a fan event in downtown Las Vegas.
The governor-elect has staunch support from the Laborers local 872 union, which held a Raiders stadium rally in a North Las Vegas park in summer of 2017 and had a special speaker in the name of Sisolak.
The Raiders appreciated Sisolak’s support because the Clark County Commission approved stadium site and parking plans even though there were those who questioned the team’s parking proposal of satellite parking lots that would use shuttles to move fans to the stadium site.
Here’s another stadium-related tweet by Sisolak showing the county commission chairman signing the bond ordinance authorizing the sale of the stadium authority bonds.
No wonder locals looked at Sisolak as the Raiders stadium unofficial publicist. He used Twitter to also update locals on everything from hotel room tax revenues that will help pay off the debt on the stadium subsidy to show a photo of former UNLV President Len Jessup and Raiders President Marc Badain shaking hands before a stadium board meeting. The NFL team had worked out an agreement with UNLV to have the university’s football team play at the new palatial football stadium.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
In contrast to Sisolak’s very public and robust support for the stadium subsidy, the Raiders and Golden Knights, Laxalt was not publicly chatty about the topics. In fact, LVSportsBiz.com did not see Laxalt talk publicly about sports topics. Laxalt was seen in a jogging outfit in a campaign TV ad, but that was about it.
*
Follow LVSportsBiz.com om Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Contact LVSportsBiz.com publisher/writer Alan Snel at asnel@LVSportsBiz.com.