Memorial garden for the 58 people who lost their lives Oct. 1 from the mass shooting at the country music festival. Photos by J. Tyge O'Donnell for LVSportsBiz.com

MGM Resorts Will Use Route 91 Harvest Mass Shooting Site on Strip For Raiders Stadium Parking, Then Community/Athletic Center

By Alan Snel

LVSportsBiz.com

 

With the second anniversary of the Oct. 1 mass shooting on the Strip less than a month away, MGM Resorts International has decided to convert the land that hosted the Route 91 Harvest country music festival into parking for the Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium in the immediate future before using the site to build a community and athletic center on the north end of the property.

MGM Resorts’ 15-acre Village site site will also include space to remember the victims of the Oct. 1 Route 91 Harvest concert. A killer with weapons and ammo set up a shooting perch in a Mandalay Bay corner suite and rained bullets on country music fans enjoying an outdoor festival on the Strip shortly after 10 p.m. Oct. 1, 2017 on the MGM Resorts site that has been used for various events through the years.

The Oct. 1 shooting spree killed 58 people and injured more than 500 others. It’s the most deadly mass shooting in U.S. history.

In a release Tuesday, the Las Vegas-based hotel/casino/entertainment company said, “MGM Resorts plans to build a community and athletic center on the north end of the property, which will be home to sporting events and community gatherings. We hope one day it will host high school basketball tournaments, indoor soccer for kids and provide a place for the Aces to practice and engage with the community to inspire the next generation of female athletes.

“It was important to us that the long-term use of the property include the community in some way. We also plan to create a space on the property to remember the victims of the tragedy.”

Here’s the MGM Resorts International statement:

 

 

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Alan Snel

Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.