By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
When you’re the Second City in a market with the name recognition of Las Vegas and an NFL team comes calling, you’re going to roll out the red carpet in the form of a sweet land deal for a site practically across the street from your local executive airport.
The city of Henderson Monday officially welcomed the Raiders to its giant bedroom community Monday when the NFL team held a groundbreaking for its new headquarters and practice center on 55 acres the team bought for $6 million from Henderson. The land was valued at $12 million, but Henderson officials argue the half-price land deal with the Raiders is a good investment because it will spur growth and tax revenues.
On an on overcast day in Southern Nevada, the Raiders used buses to shuttle about 200 guests and media from The M hotel-casino to the training facility site, which is close to the Henderson Executive Airport only a few miles east of I-15. Owner Mark Davis could not attend, but team President Marc Badain thanked all parties involved.
“We don’t do anything low-key,” Badain told the audience of the HQ/practice center groundbreaking event. You can watch the groundbreaking event here.
Also not in attendance was Nevada’s champion groundbreaking shovel collector/Raiders superfan Gov. Steve Sisolak, who joked with LVSportsBiz.com a few months ago that he had more shovels than Home Depot thanks to his appearances at many a groundbreaking while he was a Clark County commissioner.
But Las Vegas lawyer/dealmaker Jay Brown was in the house Monday. Badain noted that it took only a single phone call to Brown before stepping aside and letting Brown do his dealmaking thing. When LVSportsBiz.com saw Brown after the meeting and joked that he’s part of every big deal in Las Vegas, Brown quipped back, “That’s how I like it.”
There were current Raiders players like starting quarterback Derek Carr and old Raiders quarterbacks like Jim Plunkett at the hour-long event held inside a big white tent.
The $1.8 billion stadium project is about 12 miles or so away to the north, on the west side of Interstate 15 across the highway from Mandalay Bay hotel-casino and the Strip. But the Raiders’ headquarters will be anchored in suburban Henderson, where the sprawling Inspirada housing development is close to the team’s 250-employee practice facility/HQ. Take a look at the Raiders’ new home.
The new Raiders headquarters will “elevate” the Henderson “brand,” said Jonas Peterson, president/CEO of the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance, which tries to bring new business to Las Vegas and tracks business trends in Southern Nevada.
Peterson said companies considering Las Vegas care about the available workforce in a market and those workers “care about sports.”
LVSportsBiz.com also chatted with Raiders stadium board chairman Steve Hill, new head of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) tourism agency, after the shovels hit the ground. Can the Raiders headquarters stir commercial and economic growth around it? Here’s Hill’s response:
South Point hotel-casino General Manager Ryan Gowney said his hotel is about half-way between the Henderson headquarters and the Raiders stadium, and he relished that his hotel was “right in the middle at the 50-yard line between the practice facility and the stadium.”
The Raiders stadium board meets at the Clark County Commissioner chambers 11:30 a.m. Thursday. Here is the meeting info.
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