Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — The Las Vegas Raiders rolled out their big hitters like team president Sandra Douglass Morgan and consultant Jeremy Aguero before the Las Vegas Stadium Board Thursday to make their case that the NFL team valued at $11 billion deserves to get $75 million in public money to build a $158 million entrance plaza to improve fan flow into the venue.
Douglass Morgan and Aguero praised the six-year-old stadium for bringing in visitors and money, though it was unclear why public dollars have to be used to improve a stadium experience that generates money for the privately-owned Raiders and the event promoters who rent the stadium that opened during the COVID pandemic. It’s also unclear why the Raiders simply did not build a plaza for their stadium when it opened the venue after the public contributed $750 million for the stadium construction.
Morgan described the congestion of fans arriving on one side of the stadium and said the money would be used from a fund for what it was intended for under the 2016 state stadium funding law– for an improvement to the stadium. The Raiders played a time lapse video showing fans walking to the stadium to illustrate their point of user congestion on the stadium’s north side.
That raises a question about how the stadium that can hold more than 60,000 fans was planned and designed for fan arrival and movement. Typically, a local government planning department would evaluate the stadium plans for user arrival and movement. The Raiders knew thousands of stadium fans would come over the Hacienda Avenue bridge to reach the venue from hotels and parking garages/lots on the east side of Interstate 15.
Southern Nevada is raising more than $1 billion in hotel room tax revenues to pay off the debt on the $750 million stadium contribution. The Raiders-built stadium hosted 38 ticketed events in the last 12-month period, according to data on the Las Vegas Stadium Board meeting agenda.
Douglass Morgan told the stadium board the fund the Raiders want to tap for the $75 million toward the $158 million plaza was legally designed under the state stadium law to pay for stadium improvements.
That’s accurate.
But under that state bill, that fund can also be used for two other purposes.
LVCVA staff working with the stadium board said the fund can be also used for Clark County projects like the $5 million in overhead signs the county wants to install on local streets near the stadium. Here’s a proposed county sign, for example. The county projects will be voted on at a special stadium board meeting Sept. 2 at 3 PM.
And the fund can be used to pay down the public’s stadium debt. The public is paying more than $1 billion in debt on the $750 million contributed to the Raiders’ $1.4 billion stadium construction budget that was part of an overall project cost of about $2 billion.
Douglass Morgan and Raiders staff left the meeting in the middle of the stadium board session. Douglass Morgan declined to comment to LVSportsBiz.com outside the meeting about the Raiders’ request because she said our previous story on the topic was not accurate.
LVSportsBiz.com wanted to ask the team president why a plaza — typically a part of a stadium or arena project — was not built in the original Raiders stadium project in 2020.
As for Las Vegas’ most well-known consultant, Aguero’s fingerprints are all over Allegiant Stadium.
He helped write the 2016 state stadium funding law that earmarked the $750 million in public money to help the Raiders build the stadium. Aguero’s legislation included the “waterfall” fund the Raiders want to use for the $75 million to pay for the new plaza entrance.
After state lawmakers approved the Raiders stadium funding bill, Aguero then became the support staff for the Las Vegas Stadium Board. Then he was hired by the Raiders as an analysis executive. He then left the Raiders and went on to work for the A’s as a consultant on their stadium project in Las Vegas.
Aguero posted numbers on the meeting room screen showing the stadium’s financial impacts. It should be noted that Raiders owner Mark Davis’ team value has soared to $11 billion thanks to a stadium financed with $750 million in public money.
Aguero also told the stadium board the world’s biggest sports events come to Allegiant Stadium. The World Cup, the planet’s biggest sports event, did not come to Allegiant Stadium this summer. Super Bowl 63 is coming to Las Vegas in 2029.
After the meeting, Stadium Board chairman Steve Hill made the case for the Raiders getting $75 million to help build their new plaza.
In many ways, Hill functions like a Raiders surrogate, arguing the stadium makes a lot of money for the Las Vegas market. He said the extra hotel room tax revenue money does not have to be used to pay down the public debt because there is plenty of room tax revenues to pay the bond debt.
It’s clear the Las Vegas Stadium Board will likely approve the $75 million for the Raiders to build their stadium plaza, which is scheduled to be built in late 2028 or early 2029. Keep in mind the Super Bowl at the stadium is set for Feb. 2029, though the NFL handles all security and creates an outer perimeter for the big event that is beyond the stadium parking lots and includes the Hacienda bridge.
Stadium board members praised the Raiders for their community involvement during an oversight committee talk during Thursday’s meeting. The stadium board members typically vote in favor of Raiders and A’s items with scant discussion.
The A’s stadium under construction on the Strip will have a plaza that is proposed to be built by the Athletics’ development partner at the former Tropicana hotel site at the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue. Interestingly enough, the current A’s president, Marc Badain, was the president of the Raiders when the NFL team built their stadium on the west side of Interstate 15.
LVSportsBiz.com asked Badain why a plaza was not built when the Raiders constructed their stadium and Badain did not know why except to say there was talk of a pedestrian bridge parallel to Hacienda Avenue to allow fans on the east side of I-15 to reach the west side and the Raiders stadium. But that pedestrian bridge was never built.
The A’s stadium is moving along, with the second of five steel truss arches installed this week. The A’s shared photos of that this week. Plus, Badain told the board sales of premium seats are going well.
The A’s $2 billion stadium is set to open for the 2028 MLB season.
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