Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Latest stadium plan is visionary, but still a long shot

Fusion Project

Courtesy

An artist’s rendering depicts the Fusion Project — the latest stadium proposal to surface for Las Vegas.

Someone far wiser than I — maybe it was Steve Wynn or the late Bob Stupak — once said to be wary of a man and his renderings.

Regretfully, you could paper the Strip with the fancy and fruitless concepts proposed for our city through the years: the UNLV Now stadium, the downtown Las Vegas Arena, the downtown Las Vegas soccer stadium.

So what to make of the Fusion Project, a project of F Group International, and its co-founder, Daniele Fortunato? The charismatic gentleman from Rome comes to Las Vegas packing a vision, enthusiasm and a persuasive pitch for a sports and entertainment complex to break ground in 2017. Fortunato has produced slick renderings and a groovy video of how the complex might look. But we are meeting him only today — no more, no less.

“We want to offer something to Las Vegas that it doesn’t have,” Fortunato said during lunch at Beach Café at Tropicana, which could sit close to the Fusion Project’s Green Sports Village. “We will be near the Strip, and we will do this with no public money.”

A resident of Miami, Fortunato played professional soccer in Italy and Scotland. He learned how to organize and operate professional soccer clubs and built partnerships with design and construction companies equipped to build something as elaborate as the Fusion Project.

Fortunato’s partner in the project is Gaetano Di Renzo, CEO of GDR Studio International Consulting & Associates. The two have spent two years building a proposal to bring the facility to Las Vegas and began scouting the city last November.

Plans for the Fusion Project call for a stadium of 70,000 to 90,000 capacity, dubbed Heroes Hill Stadium and located on a 200-acre parcel to be identified.

The project would cost at least $1 billion. Fortunato said he has about half that cost covered by a list of international investors, a consortium of more than 50 officials from around the world, many with links to international soccer franchises. Fortunato spoke of Las Vegas courting an MLS team, despite the downtown stadium project targeted for Symphony Park’s unraveling in spring. He touted lower-level pro leagues such as the North American Soccer League, United Soccer League and National Women’s Soccer League as possible tenants. Concerts and events such as NFL’s Pro Bowl are part of the Fusion Project’s vision.

Clearly, there are details to be delivered. Fortunato said he wants to have his “master plan” in place by December. He has met with officials from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to share his renderings and a stack of documents describing the Fusion Project.

LVCVA supports any project that can expand the Las Vegas brand and deliver visitors to the city, but nobody from Las Vegas Events, charged with booking events here, has met formally with Fortunato.

Clark County Commissioner Larry Brown has sat with the pilot of the Fusion Project. Brown said he had seen maybe a dozen such concepts during his five-year tenure on the board.

“What they need to do is answer, ‘Why are you different from the ones who have failed?’ ” Brown said. “You have to build credibility, talk about real finances, real sponsorships and a real site.”

But Brown does like Fortunato’s passion and perseverance.

“It’s a concept that is unique to Las Vegas,” Brown said. “The concept is a good one.”

And as you look around the city, you find towering examples of people who defied the skeptics.

“What are his chances?” Brown asked. “It’s tough to say. But this is a city of beating odds, and once in a while, you see that one long shot work. There’s a lot of work to do, a lot of credibility to be gained, but he could be the long shot.”

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