LVSportsBiz Confidential: Raiders Still Eyeing Bali Hai Golf Course Site To Serve Stadium
By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
For the record, the Raiders may have a Las Vegas stadium parking plan of four satellite lots and shuttles but the NFL team is still very much interested in gaining control of the Bali Hai Golf Course site for stadium parking and potential other uses.
The Bali Hai site at 5169 S. Las Vegas Blvd. is just south of the LV Boulevard-Russell Road corner and a terrific location to serve the Raiders’ stadium on the west side of Interstate 15, across the highway from Mandalay Bay hotel-casino and bounded by Polaris Avenue on the west and Hacienda Avenue to the north.
But the golf course sits on federal land and is at the center of a messy legal entanglement between Clark County and the federal government. You may recall the feds sued Clark County over the Bureau of Land Management land, alleging the county was not collecting enough money from golf course owner Bill Walters, who was jailed for insider stick trading. The Department of Justice would like Clark County to pay $75,536,455 in underpayments, alleging Walters’ rent payments to the county — and projected payments for the balance of the lease — is way under fair market land values.
The feds know the BLM/golf course site value is skyrocketing because of its proximity to the Raiders stadium, which is within walking distance. The Raiders, with a $750 million public subsidy from Southern Nevada, is building the $1.33 billion stadium as part of an overall stadium project of $1.8 billion. A quick refresher on the stadium budget:
The Raiders stadium parking situation is a mixed bag. On one hand, the 62-acre stadium site has enough space for only 2,400 cars — well below the 16,250 required under county code. But the Raiders games will be huge tourist and visitor draws, and LVSportsBiz.com is projecting that 35 percent to 50 percent of the fans at Raiders games in Las Vegas will be non-locals, meaning many fans will walk or grab rides and shuttle from the Strip corridor. The stadium is scheduled to be ready by July 30, 2020.
That’s why the Bali Hai golf course site is so attractive and valuable to the Raiders and their stadium. Its 155 acres is a 15-minute walk to the stadium, and could provide space for the Raiders to even have buildings that could generate income depending on their uses.
It will take a while for the legal mess to be untangled around the federal land/golf course site between the feds and the county. But even though the nomadic Raiders have been known to leave town, the NFL team has a 30-year deal to play at its new 65,000-seat, domed stadium, so the club has time to wait out the legalities around the BLM site and eventually gain use of the federal land that is being managed by Clark County.
It also goes to show golf courses struggle mightily to make profits in Las Vegas. Bali Hai is no different from other courses around Las Vegas Valley in that it failed to generate the income golf course developers and owners were hoping for.
And you can’t escape a simple fact — the golf course industry in Las Vegas was overbuilt for this market.
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