Rife with arenas and stadiums, Vegas has room for more, sports executive says
With the influx of new stadiums and arenas proposed around Southern Nevada, a major name in the professional sports landscape says there’s room for more.
One planned project, Oak View Group’s $10 billion project — including $2 billion arena and a surrounding entertainment district and resort — is garnering a lot of attention because of its backers. Oak View CEO Tim Leiweke was a former NBA executive and has developed and operated sports facilities for years. Oak View’s Las Vegas head, former Raiders President Marc Badain, is leading the charge in Southern Nevada.
Badain was a key player in the Raiders relocation to Las Vegas and the construction of Allegiant Stadium. Since beginning that process in 2017, Badain has been a fixture in the local business community with experience building a successful sports facility in Southern Nevada.
The arena would be built first, on a site at Las Vegas Boulevard and Blue Diamond Road, with Oak View hoping to land an NBA expansion team for the planned 20,000-seat arena. With T-Mobile Arena a few miles north, the facilities could find themselves competing for the same events, outside of Golden Knights games and potential NBA games.
Badain said having a second arena in the same city to house a pro sports team would follow a trend seen in other professional sports markets.
“Because the teams and the values associated with the teams change hands, (arenas) require a certain rate of return,” Badain said Wednesday at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, during a panel discussion at sports business conference SEICon. “If you’re just a tenant, it’s hard to get that money back. Now everybody needs their own building. Everybody needs the sponsorship dollars.”
The challenge in booking events isn’t with competing for events with other venues. It’s working with the schedule of a team that plays 41 home games and potentially more with the postseason in mind.
“You have to block off a certain number of months until you get the NBA and NHL schedules. It makes it challenging to navigate around the touring concerts,” Badain said. “So you might lose some events because you’re holding dates for the NBA, the NHL and potential playoff games.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said this week that the league would start looking at relocation in the fall, seeing if it makes sense for the league, and if so, which markets would be the best fit. Las Vegas has been mentioned as a potential expansion city several times by Silver.
The presence of T-Mobile Arena, which could host an NBA team, the Oak View project and the potential north Strip LVXP arena-resort project creates multiple options that will be a plus in the expansion process, Silver said.
“The availability of first-class arenas plays a big role in making those determinations with expansion,” Silver said Tuesday at the Thomas & Mack Center. “We have not engaged in any direct conversations with either property owners here or those who are considering buying arenas — with the exception of to the extent that groups that are looking at arenas have asked the league office for specs on what makes an arena NBA-ready.”
In Las Vegas, Badain sees enough potential events to populate each venue, with Allegiant Stadium, MGM Grand Garden arena, Michelob Ultra Arena, the Thomas & Mack Center, Orleans Arena, Lee’s Family Forum and the planned Athletics Strip ballpark. That includes Oak View’s arena, even if they don’t successfully land an NBA team.
“Vegas has had a new venue every 10 years,” Badain said. “Go back to the Thomas & Mack, the Grand Garden arena, Orleans and (Michelob) Ultra Arena, and there was a big gap before T-Mobile popped up. I put the Sphere over here, because it’s just not comparable to use it as a comp. I think it’s time for Vegas to have a new arena. I don’t think it will affect T-Mobile that much because they’ll still have the Knights there and they may one day have the NBA. There’s no guarantee we’re going to get the NBA.
“But there will be enough content, concerts and other events coming here. … I don’t think we’ll have a problem filling dates,” he said.
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.
