Raiders Stadium Plaza Project Raises Question About How A’s Will Handle Pedestrian Traffic At Their Stadium On Strip
By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — The NFL Raiders plan on building a $158 million welcome plaza on Allegiant Stadium’s north side to ease the fan congestion after only six years, so how will the MLB Athletics handle pedestrian traffic in their planning for their stadium on the Strip?
It’s a valid question. The Raiders will be receiving another $75 million in public money to help pay for the $158 million plaza they say is needed because of the pedestrian traffic problems caused by so many fans coming from the Strip and the east side of Interstate 15 via the Hacienda Avenue bridge. The $75 million approved by the Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board Wednesday without board discussion in rubberstamp fashion means Southern Nevada is now contributing $825 million to help build the Raiders stadium.
LVSportsBiz.com bicycled on Giles Street just south of the A’s stadium construction site at Reno Avenue Sunday afternoon to look at the local area outside of the A’s site. It’s obvious Clark County will need to improve the Giles/Reno intersection next to the A’s stadium east of the Strip. Let’s take a look:
The A’s stadium at the former Tropicana hotel site has a capacity of 33,000 compared to the much larger Raiders’ 62,500-seat stadium. What kind of infrastructure improvements will be made in the immediate area of the $2 billion A’s ballpark bounded by Las Vegas Boulevard, Tropicana Avenue and Reno Avenue?
The A’s plan to have a six-level parking garage with more than 2,000 stalls in two phases, while a plaza is planned for the Tropicana Avenue-Las Vegas Boulevard corner of the 35-acre site for fans to reach the A’s stadium. The A’s stadium is supposed to take up only nine of the 35 acres.
The Las Vegas Stadium Authority and Clark County failed to advise the Raiders that the fan traffic flow from the hotels and parking on the east side of the interstate would pose so much of a problem that it prompted the NFL team to build its new entrance plaza off Hacienda Avenue on the stadium’s north side. Interestingly enough, the current A’s president, Marc Badain, was also the president of the Raiders when the NFL team opened Allegiant Stadium in 2020. The Raiders say the new plaza will be ready by the time the NFL holds the Super Bowl at Allegiant Stadium in 2029.
University of Colorado-Denver professor Geoffrey Propheter, a stadium economics expert who has studied about 200 stadium leases, said the Las Vegas Stadium Authority did a poor job of monitoring the Raiders’ pedestrian traffic flows and issues at their stadium.
“It’s the authority’s job to monitor and contribute to design conversations, even though final decision making on design elements is usually (and stupidly) reserved for teams,” Propheter said. “But the authority has blame here too, and as a quasi-governmental entity that, on paper at least, is supposed to act like they care about taxpayers a little, they should be held to a higher standard than the team.”
It should be noted that the Las Vegas Stadium Board is chaired by Steve Hill, who is also the LVCVA tourism head and a big supporter of the Raiders and their stadium. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), by the way, is paid by the stadium authority to do its administrative work like holding meetings and setting the stadium board agendas.
“It is atypical for a team to seek a major improvement so early into a facility’s life. It’s a clear sign the team did a poor job of planning crowd movements, and the authority did a poor job of monitoring the team’s plans,” Propheter told LVSportsBiz.com.
It’s also unclear why the Raiders did not build a plaza for their stadium, which hosted a Chris Brown/Usher concert Sunday. A plaza is typically a routine feature of sports stadiums and arenas to hold sponsor activations and event tents. The Raiders already hold activities in their stadium parking lots before games.
The A’s received a $380 million government assistance package to help build their stadium under a 2023 state law approved by Nevada legislators in a special session. The Raiders won a 2016 state bill that earmarked $750 million in public dollars to help build their stadium. With last week’s $75 million stadium board approval toward the Raiders’ $158 million stadium plaza, the public contribution is now more than $800 million.
Hill friend/former Raiders executive/former stadium board consultant/current A’s -F1-LVCVA consultant and Las Vegas’ go-to sports consultant Jeremy Aguero said the Raiders stadium brings in a lot of money. Nobody disputes the Raiders receive the most money from the subsidized stadium and have seen their team value soar in the billions of dollars thanks to the venue.
The Raiders host the Miami Dolphins Sunday in their NFL season-opener.
LVSportsBiz.com also bicycled Sunday to see the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix base on Koval Lane, about a mile down the road from the A’s stadium. F1’s two-hour race is two and a half months down the road on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, but grand prix workers have already begun the nearly four-month process of installing/disassembling the 3.8-mile race track in the Strip corridor.
The F1 race’s first year in Las Vegas caused major disruptions and lawsuits in 2023, but that didn’t deter Clark County and the LVCVA from approving approving another decade’s worth of races. In fact, the LVCVA gave $100 million to F1 for the Las Vegas race through 2037.
Hill and Aguero said the F1 race also is a big money maker in Las Vegas. But apparently despite all the money the grand prix supposedly delivers to Clark County, there was not enough money for Clark County to even pave a sidewalk on Koval Lane across from the Las Vegas Grand Prix building at the Koval/Harmon corner:
The Las Vegas Grand Prix event is Nov. 19-21. The road disruptions will continue after the race weekend during the track breakdown period up until Christmas. F1 is working overnight on track work in an effort to limit the business disruptions and traffic problems.
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