Left to right: Logan, Epstein, Lashbrook, Bubolz and Badain
By Alan Snel
LVSportsBiz.com
Now that Las Vegas is officially anointed as America’s hottest sports town, local sports execs Marc Badain, Kerry Bubolz, Don Logan, Lawrence Epstein and Brett Lashbrook are in high demand these days and have been hitting the LV business circuit of chambers and real estate groups to crow about how dandy the sports industry is doing in Las Vegas.
“Las Vegas gives you the platform that is unparalleled,” Epstein, UFC’s chief operating officer, told an audience of about 100 at the Las Vegas Property Development and Infrastructure Conference at South Point hotel-casino Wednesday.
“We grew a global brand and couldn’t have done it without Vegas,” Epstein said.
With a “property development” crowd, sports writer and moderator Willie Ramirez focused on questions with property impacts. And that’s where Badain, the Raiders president overseeing the NFL team’s move from Oakland to Las Vegas, shared a few tidbits.
Badain mentioned that it cost the Raiders $1.2 million an acre for the land hosting the team’s $1.8 billion domed stadium project on the west side of Interstate 15 across the highway from Mandalay Bay hotel-casino. Right after the Raiders bought the land, the property in that area shot up to $2 million to $3 million an acre, Badain said.
“You saw an immediate pop,” Badain said about the impact on the local property values around the stadium site.
Badain also said 95 Raiders workers and consulting employees from Legends sports marketing agency are on the ground in Las Vegas, with another 200-250 to move from the Oakland-SF Bay area to Las Vegas. The Bay area is an expensive region to live, and the Raiders employees can “come here and buy a brand new home for an affordable price,” Badain said.
About 1,100 construction workers are on site at the Raiders stadium location, and that number will increase to 2,000 as the Raiders move to have the venue complete by July 31, 2020, he said. Southern Nevada is giving $750 million in public money to the Raiders for the stadium project.
Bubolz, the Golden Knights president, said his organization has about 300 workers, including 175 full-timers. With the Golden Knights’ player payroll and the team’s workers, the payroll is more than $100 million, Bubolz said.
Logan, the Aviators president who helped transition the Pacific Coast League Triple A baseball club from Cashman Field in downtown to a splendid $150 million jewel of a ballpark in Downtown Summerlin, said the new baseball park is situated in an area being developed by Summerlin and team owner Howard Hughes Corporation. Indeed, new apartments are being built just down the street along South Pavilion Center Drive less than a mile from the Aviators’ new 10,000-seat home.
Lashbrook, the Las Vegas Lights FC owner, noted the growth of sports in Las Vegas is delivering “wonderful intangibles” and hopes that his Triple A soccer team in the United Soccer League can make a jump to the big leagues of Major League Soccer.
The Aviators’ Logan also mentioned he fields phone calls weekly from interested parties looking at the prospect of bringing Major League Baseball to Las Vegas.
A question that the Raiders’ Badain seems to always face at these business gatherings is what about parking at the Raiders 65,000-seat stadium, where only about 3,000 plus cars can be parked on site.
“I’m not worried about parking,” Badain said. He noted the Raiders have purchased or leased land that has space for another 13,000 cars.
“I know people are making an issue out of that for the last year and a half and will make an issue out of it for the next year and a half,” Badain said.
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