City Of Arenas: Tim Leiweke’s Oak View Group Proposes $3 Billion Sports/Entertainment District, Including 20,000-Seat Arena South Of Strip In Las Vegas
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The company that rebuilt the arena for the NHL Seattle Kraken has bought 25 acres south of the Las Vegas Strip with hopes of building a $3 billion entertainment district, which includes a proposal for a 20,000-seat, $1 billion arena designed to house an NBA team.
The company is Los Angeles-based Oak View Group and its CEO is Tim Leiweke, a familiar name in the sports and entertainment world. Leiweke was CEO of Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), the Los Angeles-based company that worked with MGM Resorts International to build the six-year-old T-Mobile Arena on the Strip in Las Vegas. Leiweke was not CEO of AEG when it broke ground on T-Mobile Arena behind the New York-New York hotel-casino.
Oak View Group has posted this Tweet: “OVG announced our newest development, a multi-purpose Retail & Entertainment district south of the Las Vegas strip that will include a 20,000-seat Arena, Casino, Hotel, and additional entertainment amphitheater.”
In a release Leiweke was quoted as saying, “South of the Las Vegas strip represents one of the few areas of potential future growth of the gaming and entertainment corridor . . . This unprecedented project is an industry game-changer, and we will usher in the evolution of Las Vegas as the new entertainment AND sports capital of the world. As the largest arena developer in the world, we look forward to driving good paying job creation to Clark County as well as creating the most innovative and environmentally sustainable live entertainment point of destination in the world.”
The arena’s groundbreaking is scheduled for 2023. The 25 acres is located on 66.5 acres of land near Las Vegas Boulevard and Blue Diamond Road. Here’s a map showing the site:
Construction would include an 850,000-square-foot arena, casino, hotel, and an additional amphitheater. Oak View Group believes the buildings and venues can house concerts, sporting events, conventions, large meetings, international events, award shows and exhibitions, while including green initiatives.
This proposed project also includes consulting work by former former Raiders president Marc Badain.
LVSportsBiz interviewed Badain today about the arena project and he said Leiweke wouldn’t be making the investment if “the market couldn’t support it.” Badain said there is “no shortage” of a need for venues for live performances in Las Vegas.
“Vegas is on a growth trajectory,” he said. Badain said Leiweke’s and Wes Edens’ groups have discussed transportation issues in light of the Edens’ Brightline site being next to the proposed arena location. The Brightline site has been discussed as a proposed terminus for high-speed trains out of Southern California.
“People will figure out a way to get there,” Badain told LVSportsBiz.com Wednesday.
Leiweke told CNBC that he believes there’s enough entertainment and sports programming in Las Vegas to serve his proposed $1 billion arena that would be part of this entertainment project south of the Strip near Interstate 15 and the 215 Beltway.
“Should the (NBA) come, we will be NBA ready,” Leiweke told the business broadcaster. “There is no guarantee the NBA is coming. We understand that.”
LVSportsBiz.com also spoke with Las Vegas Events President Pat Christenson, who believes a new 20,000-seat arena can be feasible in a town with Allegiant Stadium, T-Mobile Arena, Thomas & Mack Center, MSG Sphere in 2023, MGM Grand Garden Arena and Michelob Ultra Arena at Mandalay Bay. Christenson said Las Vegas is a red-hot market that can accommodate the proposed new arena. “I love it,” Christenson said.
The project’s location is next to Edens’ proposed Brightline train/Major League Soccer stadium site. Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Edens and Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris are talking with Major League Soccer about creating an MLS expansion team in Las Vegas with the soccer venue also south of the Strip.
Some other things to consider:
— Architecture firms Gensler and Populous were hired to design arena and entertainment project.
— The arena will be privately financed. That’s significant because Southern Nevada contributed $750 million toward construction of the Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium and even the city of the Henderson contributed $42 million in public dollars to Golden Knights owner Bill Foley’s Dollar Loan Center arena, which cost $84 million near The District off the 215 Beltway.
— Project development will be led by Steve Collins, OVG’s president of global venue development and special projects.
— This proposed Oak View arena would compete directly against T-Mobile Arena, which houses the NHL Vegas Golden Knights and several annual UFC fight show events.
“We have to be driven by music,” Leiweke said of his proposed arena in the $3 billion sports/entertainment district. It should be noted that Las Vegas is number one in concert market ratings.
But there is already a major new venue being built in Las Vegas designed to serve exclusively big music acts — MSG Sphere Las Vegas, which is scheduled to open in 2023’s second half. The 17,500-seat Sphere is being built just east of the Strip near the Venetian, which is partnering with Madison Square Garden Entertainment to build the venue.
Even former UNLV basketball player Jackie Robinson, a Las Vegas businessman, has been working on a proposal to build a 20,000-seat arena with a retractable roof on Las Vegas Boulevard next to the Sahara hotel-casino. The arena is proposed as part of a non-gambling hotel project. It’s unclear whether construction of that project will actually happen, though. Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom said on Twitter of Robinson’s All Net arena proposal: “I just talked to Jackie Robinson about the All-Net arena between the Sahara and Fountainebleau and he ‘is going forward!’ Las Vegas is on fire.”
Leiweke is familiar with entertainment/sports districts because he worked at AEG, which owns the LA Live downtown district, Crypto.com (formerly Staples Center) at LA Live and the LA Kings. Entertainment districts work because they are within walking distances of a lot of other businesses and residences. But this Oak View Group entertainment/arena proposal is between Mandalay Bay and South Point south of the Strip, a mish-mash corridor that lacks infrastructure and is not known for heavy foot traffic.
Badain said, however, the arena/entertainment district will be a “destination.” Its location will certainly be more appealing to people living in the south metro Las Vegas area and those along the fast-growing Blue Diamond Road corridor.
Leiweke said this proposed project, including the arena, is not reliant on an NBA team being a tenant. But it’s doubtful Leiweke would say the NBA is coming to Las Vegas because the league will handle its own announcement on its own timing. There are some examples where a market’s NBA and NHL team do not play in the same arena. For example, the NBA Heat play in downtown Miami, while the NHL Panthers play in suburban Fort Lauderdale in Broward County. So, it is conceivable that a future NBA team could play in a venue that is not T-Mobile Arena.
But keep in mind that MGM Resorts International has long talked with the NBA about having an expansion team or a current team housed at T-Mobile Arena. MGM Resorts is the title sponsor of the NBA Summer League, which comes with all 30 NBA teams to UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center every summer to put on exhibition games highlighting their young players.
MGM Resorts and AEG, along with Foley, own T-Mobile Arena and are always on the lookout for programming for their arena that is tucked between MGM Resorts properties like Park MGM and New York New York. It’s been discussed for years that an NBA team can be a turnkey operation at T-Mobile Arena. Promoters already stage major college basketball games like Gonzaga vs Duke last November.
Leiweke was also the former CEO of the company that owns the NHL Toronto Maple Leafs and NBA Toronto Raptors. And Leiweke’s Oak View Group is a partner in UBS Arena, the new venue of the NHL New York Islanders.
Oak View Group rebuilt the old Key Arena in downtown Seattle into the $1.15 billion Climate Pledge Arena, where the Golden Knights play the Seattle Kraken tonight.
In the release, there were these prepared statements.
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak: “We are proud Oak View Group has chosen Nevada for its next and largest project. This newly proposed entertainment district in Las Vegas will help continue the state’s economic momentum and create thousands of jobs and greater prosperity for Nevadans. I look forward to seeing the many opportunities this creates in Las Vegas.”
Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft, whose district includes the proposed project: “The team assembled has the track record and ability to bring another world-class venue to our world-class destination. They also have the expertise and history of building a carbon zero and zero waste facility. I welcome this next evolution for south Las Vegas Blvd, the jobs this project will create, and the history that will be made by today’s news.”
PSA
