By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Las Vegas Raiders, don’t count on that $30 million, 10-year stadium sponsorship deal with the Southern Nevada Water Authority quite yet.
Several members who sit on the public water agency’s advisory committee said at a meeting Wednesday afternoon that they have concerns with the length of the proposed 10-year Raiders sponsorship deal.
And one of the water agency’s advisory panel members also questioned the Raiders’ $30 million sponsorship with the Southern Nevada Water Authority because he wondered how effective would a water conservation campaign be at the Raiders’ new stadium where many of the attending fans will be out-of-town visitors and not even local water users.
“If I were going to spend $30 million over 10 years with the Raiders it’s imperative you’re talking to the people you’re trying to reach,” SNWA advisory committee member Andy Maggi told LVSportsBiz.com after a 2 1/2-hour advisory committee meeting at the water authority’s headquarters in downtown Las Vegas. Maggi is executive director of the Nevada Conservation League.
In November, Scott Huntley, senior manager of public services for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said the water agency’s proposed founding partnership deal had comparable money value as the Raiders’ other stadium founding partners. Those stadium sponsorship partners are Allegiant Air, America First Credit Union, Caesar Entertainment, Cox, Credit One Bank, Desert Ford Dealers, Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling, San Manuel Casino and Twitch.
Technically speaking, the proposed Raiders sponsorship deal with the Southern Nevada Water Authority is for $2.5 million a year in year one with a four percent increase annually for the decade-long sponsorship agreement. By year ten, it’s $3.558 million for that year. And overall, the 10-year deal is $30 million — the amount Huntley said he was told by the Raiders as the Allegiant Stadium founding partnership “entry” cost.
Before Wednesday’s SNWA advisory panel meeting, Huntley told LVSportBiz.com, “Sports are a very good connection for us because of the audience. It really fits. (The fans) are the people who set their watering clock for their outside water. Sports work for us.”
Indeed, Huntley said the Southern Nevada Water Authority pays a ballpark figure of $200,000 to the NHL Vegas Golden Knights to promote the water authority’s water conservation message and another $35,000 to VGK forward Ryan Reaves, the hard-hitting player featured in water conservation public service announcements who is seen smashing into local homeowners who waste water as part of the humorous spots.
The SNWA also pays for water conservation sponsorships with UNLV sports, the Las Vegas Lights FC soccer team and Las Vegas Aviators Triple A baseball team.
In the case of the Raiders sponsorship proposal, SNWA advisory committee member Peter Guzman said he typically likes sports sponsorships as a platform to convey a message. But Guzman, who is president of the Las Vegas Latin Chamber of Commerce and a member of the stadium community benefits committee, had an issue with the length of the Raiders’ sponsorship agreement with the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
“I’m not too comfortable with the time commitment,” Guzman told his fellow water authority advisory panel members. Guzman also followed up with a tweet Thursday: “The spirit of my entire comment was after clear opposition was being discussed, “I like the partnership, but as a compromise, maybe we look at the time commitment”. Just want to make sure that you clearly understand that I’m good with partnership.”
Another advisory committee member, Las Vegas economist John Restrepo, also questioned the commitment to a 10-year sponsorship deal with the Raiders.
In fact, he also wondered how effective sports sponsorship deals are when it comes to changing people’s behavior. “I don’t know whether they are effective,” Restrepo told LVSportsBiz.com after the meeting. He noted the proposed Raiders sponsorship deal included the Raiders helping the water authority change high school football fields from grass to artificial turf but Restrepo said the public water agency can work on that without a Raiders sponsorship agreement.
(Interestingly enough, the Raiders Thursday sent a press release saying the Clark County School District will install new synthetic turf at Rancho High School in Las Vegas thanks, in part, to a $250,000 grant from the Raiders through the National Football League Foundation Grassroots Program. )
Southern Nevada Water Authority executives discussed water conservation issues with the advisory committee for an hour and forty minutes before the Raiders stadium sponsorship deal was addressed. They presented the Raiders sponsorship proposal as one of five “advertising, outreach & engagement” possible strategies to reduce water use and reach the public agency’s target audience. The agency said the Raiders sponsorship proposal would save 900 million gallons of water a year.
Other proposed water authority strategies included beefing up compliance for $2.39 million a year that would supposedly save 1.2 billion gallons of water a year.
Eventually, the water authority’s full board will take up the Raiders stadium sponsorship proposal. It will be interesting to see how the water authority board members consider the advisory committee member’s concerns.
The Raiders stadium, which is a $1.97 billion project including $1.4 billion to construct the stadium, is scheduled to be completed July 31. The Southern Nevada public is giving the Raiders a $750 million subsidy to build the domed, 65,000-seat venue.
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