The Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee unanimously agreed to recommend financing for a proposed $1.9 billion domed stadium, and perhaps the most surprising moment of the proceedings was which member motioned to approve a public investment of $750 million.
For those proposing to build a domed stadium with the aid of $750 million in public funding that could deliver Las Vegas an NFL franchise, it will be anything but an unimpeded jog home.
I ranked locations based purely on one criteria: How each might play for an NFL fan, in case Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis received the votes needed to relocate his franchise.
Derek Carr, like most other NFL quarterbacks, is the face of the franchise. He will determine a lot about the future of the Raiders, whether they are in Oakland or Las Vegas or again in Los Angeles.
For years, for decades, forever, those issues that prevented serious thought about Las Vegas ever featuring a major league professional sports franchise almost immediately ended any such movement.
The financial impact on what a stadium would mean to UNLV was discussed at different points of Thursday’s gathering, but this remains a secondary and yet highly significant element: How big a part could a stadium play in securing the Rebels’ membership in a Power 5 conference?
The message is fairly obvious: Some across the league are rightly moving away from one of the NFL’s more hypocritical opinions — which is a pretty sizable list.
Showered with boos on a rain-soaked weekend in Chicago, Roger Goodell told the draft crowd to “bring it on” in a rare show of his sense of humor. The NFL commissioner knows he’s unpopular, and he’s embracing the hate.
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman on Thursday was a pom-pom and marching band short of starting a pep rally inside the Stan Fulton Building at UNLV.
If Mark Davis is indeed using Las Vegas and a proposed $1.3 billion Strip stadium as a way to land a new palace to replace the ramshackle site that is O.co Coliseum in Oakland, he sure is keeping a straight face about things.
