Raiders pay $77.5 million for Russell Road stadium site

By Adam Candee

Published Monday, May 1, 2017 | 12:06 p.m.

Updated Monday, May 1, 2017 | 4:45 p.m.

A 62-acre land parcel west of the Strip off Russell Road no longer is the "preferred" stadium location for the Las Vegas Raiders.

Instead, it is the confirmed site of the NFL franchise after the Raiders purchased it for $77.5 million in a sale that closed Monday.

The sale of the parcel posted Monday through the Clark County Recorder. The team plans to build a 65,000-seat domed stadium on the land at a cost of $1.9 billion and will begin playing games there in the 2020 NFL season.

CBRE Executive Vice President John Knott represented the seller, Nevada Land Group LLC. Knott confirmed the $100 million asking price for the parcel, a cost intended to eliminate speculative bidders that a $50 million tag might have attracted.

“It’s a fair deal for both parties,” Knott said. “My client got the only large deal to come through this marketplace in the past couple of years.”

Nevada Land Group shows through the Nevada Secretary of State as a group of financial companies including Barclays Bank and Credit Suisse. LV Stadium Company LLC purchased the land.

Raiders officials expressed their preference for the Russell Road site early in the process of moving the team from Oakland to Las Vegas, acquiring the option to purchase the land in August.

The team eventually will transfer ownership of both the land and the completed stadium to the Las Vegas Stadium Authority. The Raiders will lease the facility at no cost and operate its events through a separate company formed by the franchise.

The Raiders have been working with Clark County officials in recent weeks to complete a high-impact study on the area, including transportation, parking, core sampling and other work designed to assess the suitability of the parcel for a massive stadium project. Its proximity to the Strip will allow for quick access for tourists attending events at the facility and also will increase its potential appeal to companies interested in purchasing the naming rights to the facility.

Those naming rights could generate $50-75 million toward the team’s anticipated $500 million contribution to the stadium, which also will receive $750 million in taxpayer funding through an increased hotel room tax.

The Raiders also like the site’s proximity to Interstate 15 for moving fans in and out of the area. The state plans hundreds of millions of dollars in transportation upgrades to the area that could help alleviate expected congestion caused by traffic around the facility, though some of the improvements were in the pipeline before the Raiders move became a strong possibility. These include reconfiguring the Tropicana Avenue interchange at I-15 and constructing direct-access ramps connecting a new carpool lane on I-15 to Harmon and Hacienda avenues.

Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak and Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board Chairman Steve Hill have said parking will be an issue with the site, as its current footprint might struggle to accommodate the number of cars expected for a football sellout.