Raiders, stadium authority conclude lease-agreement talks
Negotiators with the Oakland Raiders and the Las Vegas Stadium Authority wrapped up a series of lease agreement talks Tuesday that are expected to lead to a vote Thursday in advance of next week’s NFL owners meetings in Chicago.
Jeremy Aguero, principal for Las Vegas-based Applied Analysis, which serves as the authority staff, said late Tuesday that the finishing touches of the deal involved implementation of language from several sources into the document.
“It’s down to the minutiae, and we’ve been trading language from the NFL, Clark County, representatives of the Raiders’ lenders and from the members of the authority board,” Aguero said.
The Raiders are financing their contribution to the public-private partnership that will fund what’s expected to be a $1.9 billion, 65,000-seat domed stadium at Interstate 15 and Russell Road.
The financing is expected for at least $650 million through Bank of America, but the Raiders haven’t released details about the package.
The public’s contribution is $750 million raised through an increase in Clark County’s room tax, which will be used to repay bonds that will be issued through the county.
Aguero said he expects that all the essential details of the contract will be distributed to authority board members Wednesday so that they’ll be prepared to vote at Thursday’s meeting at 1 p.m., at the Clark County Government Center.
Approval of the lease agreement requires a simple majority vote of the nine-member board. Should the board fall short of the votes needed for approval, the matter has been placed on the agenda of a previously scheduled Monday meeting, at which the board will consider the authority’s 2017-18 budget.
It’s important for the lease agreement to be approved by the authority soon. Raiders President Marc Badain said Thursday that NFL owners are meeting in Chicago on Monday and Tuesday and want to review the lease deal then. A delay could push the matter to the owners’ next meeting in October, when it would be too late to get the stadium completed in time for the start of the 2020 NFL season.
Aguero said the lease agreement is a framework necessary for several other document reviews that can be worked on over the next four months. Among them: Clark County’s High-Impact Project approval, a joint-use agreement with UNLV for the Rebel football team to use the stadium, the Nevada Department of Transportation project review and a community benefits plan that will assure contracts to Nevada small businesses.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.
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