‘Flurry of activity’ required this summer before stadium construction can begin

By Adam Candee

Tuesday, May 9, 2017 | 2 a.m.

Just three weeks elapsed between the last meeting of the Las Vegas Stadium Authority board and Thursday’s scheduled gathering, a period that included the NFL draft for the Raiders.

As such, do not expect much forward progress on the latest draft stadium lease agreement between the authority and the franchise.

Thursday’s meeting will focus primarily on a report to the board on the high-impact study being conducted by Clark County officials to determine the viability of the 62-acre Russell Road site purchased May 1 by the Raiders for $77.5 million. Issues such as transportation, parking and soil suitability will be among the topics examined in the coming months to ensure that the Russell Road parcel meets the standards for constructing a 65,000-seat domed stadium to host the Raiders beginning in the fall of 2020.

“The fact that this is the site that is desired, I don’t think should come as a surprise to anybody,” board chairman Steve Hill said. “Parking, access, soil — I assume we can get to the answer of ‘yes’ on each one.”

This debrief will follow a development meeting in Las Vegas three weeks ago featuring close to 70 people from the Raiders, the county and other entities which will be involved in the facility’s construction. County Commissioner Steve Sisolak said at the time that another meeting of that size likely would not take place in the near future, but that continuing reports on the progress of the study would come from individual departments as needed.

The high-impact study must conclude by August and be approved by the Clark County Commission to keep to the anticipated timeline released Friday by the stadium authority. Also scheduled for August completion are an Nevada Department of Transportation project review and the shared-use agreement between UNLV and the Raiders, which must be ratified by the Board of Regents as well as the authority.

Finishing that work by August would allow the board to use September to conduct final review of the dozen agreements necessary before shovels can hit the dirt on the $1.9 billion domed stadium. The board would approve all of the documents by October, according to the timeline. That represents a slight change from what Hill said at the last meeting, when he referred to October as being behind schedule.

“Plus or minus September, (in that) timeframe there’s going to be a flurry of activity right in that 45- or 60-day window,” Hill said this week.

The Raiders would then transfer the parcel for the facility to the authority — which eventually will own both the land and the stadium — in November, when the Raiders also would put forward the first $100 million of their contribution to the development. That would allow site work to start in December and stadium construction to commence in January.

The listed 30-month timeline for construction shifts another deadline for the authority and the Raiders, as the original schedule called for 32 months to complete the project by the summer of 2020. The authority now hopes to finish the stadium by June and to allow the Raiders more than two months before playing their first preseason game there in August.