By DAN KARELL
The partnership that wants to bring a Major League Soccer team to Las Vegas has two more months to figure out how they plan to finance the stadium they want built for the team.
Las Vegas City Council voted on Wednesday, 6-1, to give the Findlay Sports and Entertainment and the Cordish Companies until December to finalize a finance plan for a proposed $200 million stadium in Symphony Park. The two-month extension was only approved with a condition that no public money would be used to build the stadium. Councilman Stavros Anthony was the only no vote.
Under the current terms of the proposal, 75 percent of the stadium costs will be covered by public funding, which councilwoman Louis Tarkanian is reportedly completely against. In addition, the plan calls for the city to issue $50 million in bonds that would be paid back in 30 years with $3 million payments per year in hotel taxes.
However, the city would likely have to pledge general fund revenues to secure enough bondholders to trust that they’ll be repaid the $90 million they’re owed, according to Las Vegas financial consultant Guy Hobbs, via the Las Vegas Review Journal.
“In all likelihood, the city will pledge general tax revenues to secure those bonds because this source of revenue (collected room tax fees) can be renegotiated and theoretically go away and not be a revenue source that would a good pledge,” Hobbs told the Review Journal. “Bondholders want to make sure that the money they have paid for the bonds will be repaid to them without fail over the life of the 30 years. You pledge a source of revenue to repay … What ultimately is at risk is the general tax revenues.”
Cordish Companies reportedly added another incentive for City Council to approve the stadium proposal. Cordish Chief Operating Officer Zed Smith stated at the meeting that the company would spend $250 million in commercial and real estate development next to the stadium, adding to the local economy.
The latest stadium proposal term sheet calls for an open-air, 19,000-24,000 seat stadium with an artificial turf surface. The stadium would use “shade feature” to keep the harsh desert sun off the spectators. The average temperature in March is 71 degrees F, to 105 degrees F in July, and down to a paltry 83 degrees F in October.
Findlay and the Cordish Cos. now have until Dec. 17 to draft and submit to City Council a proposed development agreement that includes a detailed financial summary of the stadium financing plan.
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What do you think of this development? Do you believe the stadium could be built entirely with private funds? Do you see MLS expanding to Las Vegas?
Share your thoughts below.
Can the stadium shade the players as well? Shade reduces heat drastically in arid climates, so if there is shade, the heat won’t be a problem. Anyway, here is one Las Vegan who will be buying season passes if this ever (finally) happens, regardless of the heat.
Her name is Lois Tarkanian, not Louis.
No Artificial Turf!
It’s pretty much a given. Grass is a really big expense in Vegas. People are even encouraged to not have lawns at their homes because of water conservation policies and taxes.
mls needs vegas, miami, nycfc, a real los angeles 2 & of course a rebrand of red bull.
now the question is will metrostars or cosmos take over.
Let’s hope for a cosmos takeover though I’m not sure how that would work.
Since the location of the sun is known, it would seem designers could plan for the field to be shsded, as well. Or, games could be in the evenings.
105 degrees in July? Sure, the fans may be in the shade but on the pitch the temperature will be at least 10 degrees higher. And, if they use turf, it would probably be like 125 degrees on the pitch. It ‘s just as crazy as hosting a world cup in Qatar
No diff in dallas or houston.. suck it up.
Well actually, Dallas and Houston have grass but then again I don’t suppose you’ve ever played on the heat that radiates from a fake surface in August.
The players are at least ventilating; Who in their right mind is gonna want to be outside, sitting among hundreds of people, dehydrating?.
If you expect the locals to show up, make this a dome.
Playing on a turf field 95+ is miserable. Literally your feet get too hot to play. Huge difference on grass.
I love sports but am against tax dollars being p*ssed away on sports facilities for millionaires/billionaires. Always a bad investment for municipalities.
Such a bad deal for a city that is already getting bad news this week. If I lived there I’d probably say no to fronting $150M for a private firm’s plaything.