Former Raiders president Marc Badain Photo credit: J. Tyge O'Donnell/LVSportsBiz.com
Stadiums/Arenas (General) 

Oak View Group Names Morton, Ex-Raiders Prez Badain To Oversee Ambitious Hotel/Arena Project South Of Strip In Las Vegas

Alan Snel , , ,
Marc Badain

By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com

The arena-building company that wants to construct a $3 billion hotel-casino and NBA-ready arena south of the Strip has picked two well-known Las Vegas entertainment and sports executives to oversee the project.

The Oak View Group has enlisted former Bellagio President and Chief Operating Officer Randy Morton, who most recently worked as co-CEO of Golden Knights owner Bill Foley’s entertainment group.

Morton is president of OVG Las Vegas hotel & casino.

Meanwhile, Oak View named former Las Vegas Raiders President Marc Badain as president of OVG Las Vegas sports & entertainment venues. Badain left the Raiders in July 2021 before resurfacing with Tim Leiweke’s Oak View Group on the hotel-arena project in March.

Leiweke, a veteran sports arena executive and builder, wants to build an ambitious project at Las Vegas Boulevard and Blue Diamond Road.

Here’s a locater map of the site:

Los Angeles-based Oak View wants to build a 20,000-seat arena, a hotel-casino and amphitheater as part of the project. Leiweke wants an NBA team to be the anchor tenant of the arena.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver recently said there is no plan — right now — to have an NBA franchise in Las Vegas. But the NBA has a big annual presence in Las Vegas every July with the NBA Summer League at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center.

Also joining the OVG Las Vegas project team is Patrick Crockett as hotel-casino financial consultant. The trio will be based in Las Vegas with Crockett reporting to Badain and Morton.

Randy Morton, OVG Las Vegas hotel chief. Photo provided

If an arena is built, it would compete against T-Mobile Arena, which is owned by MGM Resorts International, Anschutz Entertainment Group and Foley. It would compete against the proposed MSG Sphere at the Venetian, which is scheduled to open in 2023.

 

PSA

 

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.

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