Raiders president would welcome Vegas Loop station at stadium
With the Raiders ready to welcome fans into their new home this year, team officials and the Elon Musk-owned Boring Co. are in talks to link Allegiant Stadium to the resort corridor via the proposed underground Vegas Loop.
Raiders President Marc Badain said the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is leading the talks with Boring, but he’ll welcome a station at the $2 billion, 65,000-seat stadium with open arms.
“As soon as they’re ready to tell us where they want to put the station, we’ll make the space for it,” Badain said. “I think it really depends on how it connects to the rest of the Strip, to the airport and the rest of the community where they’re building the entire tunnel system.”
If the stadium district plan unveiled last week is followed, an Allegiant Stadium station would be located on the southwest corner of the property, near the corner of Russell Road and Polaris Avenue. Additional stops near the stadium would include ones near the Luxor and Mandalay Bay.
The Vegas Loop plan includes a dual tunnel system, featuring Tesla model vehicles, running from as far north as downtown Las Vegas, down Las Vegas Boulevard as far south as Mandalay Bay, with stops slated for most major resorts and the convention center. Boring would be responsible for paying for the development of the loop system, while each property would pay for its station.
The first iteration of the transportation system, the Convention Center Loop, is set to open to its first real-world customers this week during the World of Concrete show, but early testing revealed the loop surpassed ridership expectations.
“Loop capacity testing exceeded 4,440 passengers per hour … confirmed today after review results,” Steve Hill, LVCVA CEO and president said in a May 28 tweet.
Badain took a ride in the 0.8-mile Convention Center loop — linking existing convention halls with the new west hall — the day after the capacity test. He said he was impressed with the experience and believes the system could work efficiently in Las Vegas.
“It’s such a simple concept,” Badain remarked. “It’s amazing that it hasn’t been thought of before. If you can take that many people off of the road and still get to a location in a much quicker timeframe I don’t see how it can’t be massively successful.”
What stood out to Badain is the system’s point-to-point nature, which allows passengers to travel to a destination without having to stop at each station along the way like the Las Vegas Monorail does.
“You have the freeway lanes and then the ways that go off (to each station), you’ll be able to go to every single location without any kind of backup or any traffic lights,” Badain said. “So, just the entire concept is so simple, but brilliant. This is really the perfect market to test it in and I’m excited they picked us.”
A timeline wasn’t yet available for when the loop could stretch down the Strip to the stadium.
Boring has a new boring machine, dubbed Prufrock, that the company’s website says is six times faster than its predecessor, with the ability to bore more than 1 mile per week.
Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft noted Boring could bore a tunnel fairly quickly when the project has all the permitting and regulatory aspects approved.
“They can certainly move quickly,” Naft said. “Of course, from the regulator’s perspective, we want to make sure that it’s a good deal for the county and a good deal for taxpayers. Also that it benefits visitors and of course our locals, but I’m very optimistic about it.”
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.