University officials look at monorail link to proposed stadium
It’s strictly at the brainstorming stage, but University of Nevada, Las Vegas consultants have floated the idea of extending the Las Vegas Monorail to a 42-acre site at Koval Lane and Tropicana Avenue to serve a potential UNLV football stadium and then extend the monorail to the Thomas & Mack Center and the rest of the UNLV campus.
There’s no designated funding for the stadium site transportation idea, and UNLV has not even purchased the stadium site yet, but university officials want to start early on stadium connectivity issues.
Another idea is UNLV also using shuttle buses to move students and staff from campus to the 42-acre site, which would be on UNLV’s southwestern edge across from McCarran International Airport and not too far from the MGM Grand parking garage. UNLV wants to stay away from building parking garages to serve the stadium, said Gerry Bomotti, UNLV senior vice president of finance and business.
The transportation ideas will be part of the football stadium update that UNLV officials will present to the Board of Regents in September, Bomotti said.
UNLV officials hope to acquire the stadium site land from Wells Fargo for $50 million in December.
UNLV’s transportation planning taps into an initiative by Gov. Brian Sandoval, who launched a committee in July to study tourism infrastructure needs, including getting people to and from convention centers, stadiums, arenas and airports. The Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee (SNTIC) meets monthly.
“We are assuming the SNTIC will indeed be looking at the stadium project we have been working on,” said Bomotti, the committee’s vice chairman.
UNLV’s consultants, SmithGroupJJR, have drafted the stadium transportation ideas. The $523 million, 50,000-seat stadium also has no funding, as university officials plan to use Sam Boyd Stadium eight miles from campus for the immediate future.
Las Vegas Monorail officials acknowledged there have been informal inquiries about extending the monorail to serve the stadium site and Thomas & Mack.
“The question we haven’t explored is, ‘Does it make sense?’ ” Ingrid Reisman, Las Vegas Monorail spokesperson.
The monorail’s closet stop to the stadium site is behind the MGM Grand.
“I like that people are thinking about what exists and what we can do to capitalize on that,” Reisman said.
University officials originally considered a site across campus at UNLV’s athletic fields and a more ambitious $950 million domed “megaevents center.” Athletic Director Tina Kunzer-Murphy said Monday that athletic officials did not like that location for a stadium. Also, that site was not workable because the proposed domed stadium interfered with flights from nearby McCarran.
Contact Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Find him on Twitter: @BicycleManSnel