[timothyaw]

This may still be a long shot, but I was personally surprised by the actions going already behind closed doors.


https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports...vegas-1544881/

[Dport7674]

It's been only a matter of time.

[Willy702]

Why would you pay for your own stadium when other cities would gladly fund some of it? These don't sound like very good businessmen to me.

[timothyaw]

Originally Posted by Willy702

Why would you pay for your own stadium when other cities would gladly fund some of it? These don't sound like very good businessmen to me.

If they do go forward, I'm all for them privately financing it. There have been some projects around the country that have been privately financed. The new Rams stadium in LA is, so was Gillette stadium where the Patriots play.


With the whole drama of getting public money for the Raiders, there is very little appetite from public officials to the public in general to go down that road again.

[BWNLV]

If someone wants to build a domed stadium for baseball, fine. But no more taxpayers money or burdening the tourists with another occupancy tax increase to pay for it. It would have to be a domed stadium because of the Las Vegas summer heat.

With MGM trying to land a NBA team along with VGK and Raiders, I wonder how much disposable income residents have to spend on another's team tickets.

[FML157]

Baseball games don't put enough people in seats , TV rights for baseball aren't as lucrative as other sports and the demand for stadium events (on non-game nights) isn't there; therefore this isn't a viable investment, unless of course you get the stadium for free (i.e tax payers pay for it).

[Code Stemi]

Originally Posted by BWNLV

With MGM trying to land a NBA team along with VGK and Raiders, I wonder how much disposable income residents have to spend on another's team tickets.

Is MGM trying to land a NBA team? What's the details on that?

Edit. Just googled it. That'd be fantastic if we got a NBA or MLB team here in town. Wonder if they would take several years, though.

[Cubicle Dweller]

There is a new minor league stadium in town - if there were an MLB team in town would there be a need for a minor league team? NYC has two minor league teams but that is a much bigger market. Nonetheless I’d be all for it as long as the taxpayers and tourists (since they get soaked enough) are not on the hook for the stadium.

[Willy702]

Originally Posted by chahunt

Is MGM trying to land a NBA team? What's the details on that?

Edit. Just googled it. That'd be fantastic if we got a NBA or MLB team here in town. Wonder if they would take several years, though.

We'll see if the NBA chooses to go forward with it. As much as the NBA wants a Vegas showcase, the owners themselves see the value of better TV markets and more vulnerable markets which would put up money for an arena. Moving a team to an existing new arena like Las Vegas that they have to share with an existing NHL tenant is less than a full optimization of team value. The few teams that seemed good targets are falling away a bit as Sacramento and Milwaukee used that leverage to get brand new publicly supported arenas. With the Clippers able to muscle into a new arena soon and the Suns likely to do the same in the coming years, other owners are going to rightfully demand a big premium on franchises and I doubt works for MGM as they can't really generate that extra value that arena demands can add to franchise value. The MLB team makes zero sense really, even less sense if there is no public funding of the stadium.

The public can debate all they want about is it right to fund arenas, certainly the economics don't back it. However, its happening and will continue to happen and that fully impacts the chances for a team to move or expand into Las Vegas. If Portland is willing to provide $400 million in public support, lower taxes, offer cheaper land, and yet provide a slightly bigger TV market, how can a rational investor not conclude Portland makes more sense? Its just too far from an even playing field.

The history of these efforts to get a team only to find out the city is being used seems to be getting forgotten. Maybe the tearing down of the Rio seems logical to someone as an MLB site, but the more I hear about it, the more I start thinking this is just a sneaky land play. Get the land, say you are going to tear the Rio down, but keep it running until you get a franchise. Then when a franchise doesn't pan out, tell the city sorry we tried, but we need to do whats best for the property and redevelop it for the next big resort/residential/whatever project we can finance. If Stations seems to think the Palms is worth nearly a billion dollars into it, how could a much bigger site slightly closer to the Strip with freeway visibility not be even more tempting?

[orca17]

Originally Posted by Willy702

The history of these efforts to get a team only to find out the city is being used seems to be getting forgotten.

I grew up in Jacksonville. The list of teams that used the threat of moving there as a way to get new stadiums in their own communities is long and impressive. Most famously, the city threw a big party for Robert Irsay, the owner of the Colts, who were supposedly the most serious - right before he moved the team to Indianapolis because they got a better deal. When the city was awarded an expansion franchise in 1995 (against what most oddsmakers figured), the NFL said that it was in part because the city "had been a friend to the NFL" (read: had been a major pawn in helping other owners get new stadiums).