UNLV hopes to secure site for football stadium by December

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas hopes a deal to buy 42 acres for a 50,000-seat campus football stadium can close Dec. 18.

The closing date was part of a stadium update that UNLV business official Gerry Bomotti offered to a Board of Regents committee Thursday on the university’s attempt to acquire land from Wells Fargo at Tropicana Avenue and Koval Lane for $50 million. Technically, the UNLV Foundation, the university’s nonprofit fundraising arm, would transfer the option on the property to UNLV.

UNLV wants to buy the land for a football stadium because the current venue, Sam Boyd Stadium, is 8 miles from campus and lacks many modern stadium amenities.

Bomotti, UNLV senior vice president for finance and business, outlined various due diligence items before the regents’ investment and facilities committee. It included Timothy R. Morse and Associates appraising the property for $56.2 million as of May 14. The regents were meeting at Truckee Meadows Community College in Northern Nevada.

To continue the land deal, there has to be a $250,000 earnest money deposit by June 25, Bomotti said.

The 42-acre site is west of the Thomas & Mack Center, with 38 acres of Clark County land sitting between the campus border and the proposed stadium site. Bomotti said UNLV is also talking with county officials about campus connections and traffic issues related to the county land.

But it’s still unclear where the money will come from to pay for the land.

“That is part of what we are working on. There are some modest revenue streams from the existing billboards and we are talking with the county about short-term use that could provide some revenue. The financing details will be developed over the next few months,” Bomotti told the Review-Journal in an email.

“I would guess it will be October before we have details available. Of course we have options to do long-term financing using all nonstate general fund revenue sources for payment, but we are hoping to find ways where this will play a smaller role,” Bomotti said. “Short answer — still a work in progress.”

UNLV President Len Jessup said in the past that the university will not ask the regents for money to buy the land and will have to find private sources to finance the site purchase.

UNLV wants to buy the land even if the stadium is not built because it could house other buildings, Jessup said.

Wells Fargo has confirmed for UNLV that it’s collecting monthly revenue of $12,000 from two billboards on the 42 acres.

UNLV was partnering with a private developer to build a $950 million “megaevents center” on campus, but university officials could not get support from the casino and tourist industry. So, it switched gears last year, dumped the developer and created a stadium board, which recommended a stadium much smaller in scope.

The original stadium site on campus athletic fields also changed because of flight pattern issues to the current proposed location.

UNLV officials believe a medical school is the top priority, so they have not yet lobbied state lawmakers for money to build a stadium.

Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Find him on Twitter: @BicycleManSnel