Billionaire Sheldon Adelson wants Las Vegas to ante up the biggest subsidy in professional football history to lure the Oakland Raiders to the gambling mecca.
The chief executive of Las Vegas Sands Corp., the world’s largest casino company, teamed up with developer Majestic Realty Co. to propose a 65,000-seat domed stadium for the National Football League team. A committee of government leaders and casino executives met Thursday to review the plan, which would raise $750 million for the coliseum with a new tax on hotel stays.
The proposed record-setting payout stands in contrast to some other cities that have reconsidered subsidies for sports franchises. The St. Louis Rams are moving to a Los Angeles suburb, even though the team’s hometown offered more for it to stay, and Seattle has rejected public support for an arena that would bring basketball back. Oakland has drawn a line against using taxpayer money for a new football stadium despite the risk of losing the team.
“The NFL is sending a signal that it wants more support from the cities,” said Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. “Owners want to signal that they’re not going to keep sitting around for 15 or 20 years while cities twiddle their thumbs.”
Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval’s top economic adviser suggested scaling back the public contribution to $500 million while increasing the private-sector share to $900 million.
Steve Hill, who heads Sandoval’s office of economic development, introduced the rival plan at Thursday’s meeting of the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee, said Jennifer Cooper, his spokeswoman. Hill’s proposal could come up for a vote July 11, she said.
In Las Vegas, the idea of taxing tourists for a football stadium hasn’t drawn widespread opposition so far, though leaders of the tourism authority and some hotel-casinos expressed concern it could jeopardize a push to raise the room tax to renovate the 57-year-old convention center.
BEN AFFLECK gave former ESPN personality Bill Simmons’ new HBO talk show a lively start with a five-minute, expletive-filled rant on “Deflategate.”
During an interview on the Wednesday debut episode of “Any Given Wednesday,” Affleck passionately criticized the NFL and its commissioner, Roger Goodell, for suspending New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for using underinflated balls during a 2015 playoff game.
The New England-raised Affleck called the issue a “ridiculous smear campaign” and questioned Goodell’s integrity.
TENNESSEE TITANS linebacker Derrick Morgan wants the NFL to study how medical marijuana could help players.
Morgan said Thursday on Twitter that “it’s time for the @NFL to take an HONEST look into the potential medical benefits of Cannabis for its players.” He tweeted after telling Yahoo that he wants the league to conduct more research on marijuana, particularly on how it could help treat or prevent chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.
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