Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Sun editorial:

Stadium has been a success story for diversity in local construction industry

Raiders Stadium Topping Off Ceremony

Wade Vandervort

Workers walk by a sign showing the official name of the Raiders’ stadium, now known as Allegiant Stadium, during a topping off ceremony, Monday, Aug. 5, 2019.

The Raiders won’t play their first game in Las Vegas for several months, but there’s already been an accomplishment worth celebrating at their stadium.

The contractors — Mortenson Construction and McCarthy Building Co. — have overachieved in meeting state-mandated requirements for workplace diversity and for the awarding of subcontracts to local small businesses.

Under the legislation that created funding for the $2 billion stadium, at least 15% of subcontracting work was to go to small operations. The funding bill also called for 38% of work hours to be undertaken by women and minorities.

Here’s how the contractors have measured up, according to monthly reports from the Las Vegas Stadium Authority:

• As of July, the last month for which figures were available, 62% of the workforce were minorities and women. That figure has been as high as 67% this year.

• Of the subcontracting work being done in July,

21% was being performed by local small businesses. The figure has been above 20% for most of the year and reached as high as 23% in June.

These figures speak to the power of our diverse population and the strength of our small-business community in Southern Nevada.

They’re also a testament to minority business organizations that pushed for the requirements to be included in the funding bill. Those groups included the Urban, Latin and Asian chambers of commerce, the Nevada Minority Supplier Development Council and the National Association of Minority Contractors. 

Those advocates faced some opposition in the Legislature from GOP conservatives who argued that the requirements could squeeze out some companies that didn’t meet criteria but could provide services at a lower cost than other competitors for bids. In turn, opponents contended the requirements could drive up costs of the project.

That was a misguided argument. Opening projects like the stadium to small, local businesses makes sense for the community and for the state, as it pumps money into the local companies. That money then circulates into the local economy and into state coffers in the form of taxes.

Look at it this way: Of the $1.1 billion in subcontracting work awarded through July, $231 million went to small local businesses. In addition, 2.37 million work hours had been performed by women and minority workers.

That’s a healthy infusion of cash into the Southern Nevada economy and a boon for our workforce and families.

The requirements also were put in place to provide a fair opportunity for small and minority owned businesses to compete for contracts. Historically, those companies have too often been overlooked for such large-scale projects even though they can provide services of equal or higher quality than bigger businesses.

When the stadium opens next year, it will be a proud moment for Las Vegas. But in terms of the number of small businesses involved and the diversity of the project’s workforce, it’s already a point of pride in our community.