Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Las Vegas’ latest financing plan cuts city’s share of soccer stadium’s cost

Stadium

Cordish Cos.

Artist’s rendering of proposed stadium.

Las Vegas released a new and likely final set of financial terms today that call for the city to commit $56.5 million toward a $200 million downtown soccer stadium.

A general description of the terms was posted late Tuesday on the city's blog, and a more detailed version is expected to be released Wednesday afternoon.

The new terms will be the third financing proposal presented this year to the Las Vegas City Council, which is set to vote on the issue Wednesday, Dec. 17. The previous two terms have been rejected, but each time the council gave the developers more time to keep working with staff.

After several extensions, next week is likely to be a decisive vote that allows the stadium planning to continue or halts its progress indefinitely.

The terms released today have the city paying 28 percent of the total cost, the lowest share of all the proposals so far. The stadium would be privately owned and operated, although the city would have access to host community events there.

The new plan calls for the city to provide $31.5 million in infrastructure costs in the form of streets, gutters and environmental cleanup, plus an additional $25 million in direct payment toward the stadium's cost. That $25 million would come from a larger $50 million bond the city would issue that would be paid off over 30 years using room tax revenue collections. The other half of the $50 million bond would be spent on capital improvements at city parks and sports facilities not related to the stadium.

The city's $56.5 million total contribution doesn't include a planned a $20 million parking garage in Symphony Park that would be used by the stadium and other nearby tenants.

The city plans to pay for that using sales tax revenues from a tourism improvement district in the area.

The city's calculations also don't include the value of the land it would contribute to the project or a property tax break given to the developers of the stadium.

On the other side of the equation, the developers — a partnership between Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. and local group Findlay Sports and Entertainment — would be responsible for $143.5 million of the stadium's price tag. That's in addition to the estimated $100 million they'll have to pay for an expansion franchise in Major League Soccer. Las Vegas is in the running for the league's final expansion slot along with Minneapolis and Sacramento.

The terms released today also include a promise that was first made by a Cordish Cos. representative during an October hearing to invest $250 million in additional development around the stadium. The additional development would be subject to property tax breaks from the city if construction is started within five years.

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