Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

LA Times: What else is new? NFL, billionaires prepare two new stadium ripoffs

Sheldon Adelson

John Locher / AP

In this May 4, 2015, file photo, Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson testifies in court in Las Vegas. Adelson has pulled out of a deal to build a $1.9 billion stadium for the Oakland Raiders in Las Vegas.

We’ve all become desensitized to the spectacle of obscenely rich corporations depending on handouts from taxpayers for the privilege of doing business and making money, but no one is as brazen at this form of corporate welfare as the National Football League.

The NFL is at it again, trying to mulct the public for hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to build new stadiums in Las Vegas, which is trying to snag the Oakland Raiders; and San Diego, where the Chargers have played, generally dismally, since 1961.

The billionaire trying to squeeze Las Vegas for big bucks is Sheldon Adelson, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes at $28.7 billion. Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp. has partnered with Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis to propose a $1.9-billion stadium near McCarran International Airport. Of that sum, they’re demanding that $750 million come from a raise in the city hotel tax.

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