UNLV’s use of Raiders stadium slated for discussion

A discussion on UNLV’s use of the 65,000-seat NFL stadium being built by the Oakland Raiders at Interstate 15 and Russell Road is on Thursday’s Las Vegas Stadium Authority board agenda.

Authority officials aren’t expecting a vote to be taken on the UNLV Joint-Use Agreement, nor on a personal seat license agreement between the authority and the Raiders, two of the 15 documents that have to be signed before work crews can stick a shovel in the ground for construction. Progress reports are scheduled Thursday on both matters.

The public got a better idea of what the layout of the stadium on the 62-acre site will look like following the release Thursday of an event traffic impact study prepared by Las Vegas-based engineering consultant Kimley-Horn and Associates.

Under a preliminary design presented to Clark County, key features of the stadium site show the domed facility, 2,400 on-site parking spaces, an area capable of holding 30 shuttle buses and a looped queuing area for taxis and ride-hailing vehicles capable of holding 125 vehicles at a time, wedged between Russell Road and Hacienda Avenue and Polaris Avenue and Dean Martin Drive.

Clark County’s parking code would require 16,250 parking spaces for stadium use. The Raiders have declined comment on specifics of stadium construction, but the team has told county officials they’re reviewing other off-site parking options.

Based on site drawings, the stadium site also has a retractable field area, a concept used at Glendale, Arizona’s University of Phoenix Stadium that enables the growth of natural turf on an outdoor field that can be transported into the stadium for games.

The layout of the field within the stadium runs southwest to northeast so that the north end of the venue could open up to reveal a view toward the Las Vegas Strip.

The executive summary of the Kimley-Horn study indicated that more people would walk to the stadium than at most NFL venues because half of the fans attending games would be nonresidents and there are 23,800 hotel rooms within a mile of the stadium.

The report made 50 suggestions for on-site and off-site improvements and event mitigation measures to manage capacity game-day crowds. No cost estimates have been revealed on proposed improvements.

Clark County Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak said the Raiders’ concept review would be taken up by the commission toward the end of August.

Off-site improvements include the installation of new traffic signals along Decatur, Valley View and Las Vegas boulevards that would tie in to the Regional Transportation Commission’s Freeway and Arterial System of Transportation traffic control systems so that signals can be better timed for ingress and egress.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.