Oakland Raiders say Las Vegas project to exceed $2 billion
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Oakland Raiders said Thursday the total cost for the NFL team's move to Las Vegas, including a new 65,000-seat stadium, training facility and headquarters, will cost more than $2 billion.
Team officials addressed the costs of the project with the public entity overseeing the partially tax-funded stadium being built across a freeway from the Las Vegas Strip. That venue alone has a total price tag of $1.8 billion
Don Webb, an adviser to the Raiders, told the Las Vegas Stadium Authority board the team's contractors have determined the maximum guaranteed price for the stadium would be almost $1.4 billion, but that doesn't include the land cost, furnishings and other work. A maximum guaranteed price is a requirement of the state law that authorized a tax increase to pay for the stadium.
The cost of team's headquarters and practice facility in nearby Henderson, Nevada, has been estimated at $100 million, and it still has to figure out off-site parking for fans because of the limited space at the stadium site. The team is paying around $350 million in an NFL relocation fee.
Webb said while the Raiders will call the domed stadium home, it has been designed with other events in mind, not just football games.
The climate-controlled stadium where the team wants to kick off the 2020 season will feature 80-foot-tall (24-meter retractable doors that will give fans a view of the casino-resorts on the Strip. Nevada officials expect 450,000 people a year to travel to Las Vegas primarily to attend an event at the venue, whether it's a Raiders or college football game, a concert or motorsports event.
Some of the design features that Webb explained included a "memorial torch" on the north side of the building near the retractable doors, a roof made of a polymer that will allow natural light in, and an exterior ribbon-like structure that has the functional roles of getting rain water from the roof to the storm system and pushing fresh air into the venue and exhaust out.
He said the light transmitting portion of the roof is about 550 feet (167 meters) wide by 750 feet (228 meters) long.
"Just let that number set it," he said. "That is a huge skylight in a facility like this."
He said roughly half the people who enter the main concourse will go down to their seats and the other half will go up. The stadium during the daytime will look black from the outside, but on the inside it will be transparent to the outside.
At night, the lights inside the venue will be visible from the outside.
Season ticket sales for the stadium in Las Vegas opened Tuesday for current season-ticket holders. Webb said construction work at the site is on schedule and about two-thirds of excavation has been completed.
Guests of hotels and other lodging facilities in the Las Vegas area are paying a room tax that will contribute $750 million for the project. The NFL and the team, which has secured a bank loan, are covering the remainder.
Raiders president Marc Badain after the meeting said the team has had preliminary discussions regarding the naming rights for the facility.
The board is expected to give final approval next week to several documents, including a lease, that have been in the works for more than a year. The board action will follow NFL meetings on Tuesday.
The authority will get a suite at the stadium, but board chairman Steve Hill said it will not be for the personal use of board members and a policy will be developed to determine who will get access.
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