Clark County may loan $500K to stadium authority

A rendering shows how the proposed domed stadium for Las Vegas might look. (MANICA Architecture)

It will be months before the newly formed Stadium Authority Board has a steady stream of tax revenue to fund its operations, but Clark County appears willing to help it hit the ground running.

County commissioners will consider loaning as much as $500,000 to the stadium authority during their Tuesday meeting, commission Chairman Steve Sisolak said Friday.

That money will allow the stadium authority — a public board tasked with choosing the site and approving contracts for a planned 65,000-seat domed NFL stadium — to hire legal representation to negotiate the stadium’s development and operating agreements.

It will also pay local research firm Applied Analysis to act as the stadium authority’s temporary staff at a rate not to exceed $25,000 a month.

At the same meeting, commissioners will discuss entering into a contract that would allow county staff to provide their services to the stadium authority at a rate of $3,000 a month.

Under that contract the county would be responsible for the stadium authority’s routine legal counsel, financial records and daily accounting and budgeting. Either party could cancel after a monthlong waiting period.

The stadium authority’s primary source of funding will be excess revenue generated from a county hotel room tax increase set to go into effect March 1. That tax revenue will also fund the public’s $750 million contribution to the $1.9 billion stadium project.

Commissioners will discuss the loan at Tuesday’s meeting and likely give direction to county staff. The commissioners are expected to vote on its exact language and terms at their Jan. 3 meeting, county spokesman Erik Pappa said.

Sisolak said the stadium authority would begin repaying the loan as soon as it started to receive revenue from the hotel tax, which will likely be sometime in March.

“The taxpayer has zero risk on this,” he said.

Immediate funding is important to the stadium authority as a result of rapidly moving negotiations involving the Oakland Raiders and the family of Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson as stadium developers, the NFL and the authority board. The Raiders and the Adelson family met Thursday to fine-tune details of their stadium plan, which must be OK’d by the NFL.

The Raiders are expected next month to request permission from the NFL to move to Las Vegas from Oakland. The authority won’t begin work on the stadium until the relocation request is granted, but needs to be ready to move on it as soon as permission is given.

Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani, a vocal opponent to using public funding to build the stadium, said she plans to keep an open mind about the loan and contract with the county, but she also wants details on any future contracts the authority board signs.

“I don’t see what business they have to do right now before the NFL votes,” she said.

Other funding for the stadium project includes $650 million from the Adelson family and $500 million from the Raiders, the NFL team in talks to move to Las Vegas.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the date that increase in the hotel room tax takes effect in Clark County. The correct date is March 1, 2017.

The Review-Journal is owned by the family of Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson.

Contact Michael Scott Davidson at sdavidson@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter.