Fri, Jul 13, 2012 (8:18 p.m.)
Sports reporters Ray Brewer and Taylor Bern welcome in Sun government reporter Joe Schoenmann to discuss the four sports facility proposals currently in the area, which one(s) has the best chance of succeeding and what it could mean for Las Vegas.
The audio doesn't work.
I think this is the best stadium proposal for the valley. It would have all the benefits of other proposals plus benefit UNLV by finally having football on Campus. I think keeping this out of the hands of the Casinos would also be nice. This way they can all benefit through a neutral owner.
The only concern I have over the proposal is the amount of development they propose for campus. I think it's great to develop the land, but is it development the campus needs? Should we be putting in more commercial space instead of educational facilities? Should some of the land be kept for future use? Maybe these issue have been addressed, but I can't seem to find anything on the web.
On the arenas:
UNLVnow - It'll break ground, and I'll say within 5 years. It's been going on for quite sometime now with all the planning and whatnot for a long time and talks with Majestic as well as Cavaleer. If you guys remember in the Harter days there was a plan for "Midtown" that was 10 years in the making, but just couldn't gather the support from a young Vegas during the Vegas boom from locals that didn't give a dang about the place yet. (http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2005/apr...)
Henderson sports complex - worst possible idea on the docket. I hope the developer loos closely at the Las Vegas sports complex west of the airport for reference. Nothing worthwhile ever happened out there. The building needs to happen inside out, and it's not yet dense enough.
Downtown arena - there's potential, and I think it was a bigger dream for Goodman and drive as well as a lot of talk, but I think it *could* be viable. As far as events and things like that, I have absolutely no clue what it would attract, certainly not a professional team of any kind, because people simply don't wanna be in the surrounding area late at night.
LV arena foundation - I don't really know a whole lot about this proposal, but it just sounds like the owners are going to try and piggyback some free money off the rest of the casinos and tourists.
As far as a professional team in Vegas - Go smaller at first. I think MLS soccer has a very good chance to land in Vegas. I'm in Seattle now, and let me tell you, the Sounders are WAY bigger than the Mariners in this town. There's also very quick movement on getting an arena here with decisions coming probably this next session. Vegas and an NBA team, I dunno. I feel the people don't care enough about having an NBA team (especially a sub-par one). Hockey, same thing perhaps, but you could market it and get people out, I loved going to the wranglers games, but there's little interest still in the grand scheme of things.