A Las Vegas Stadium Construction lawsuit over a disputed payment that the Oakland Raiders claim isn’t in their area of responsibility is masking the real truth: the stadium completion date was moved back.
In this Las Vegas Stadium Construction Update, the newest report on the website of the Las Vegas Stadium Authority and for the July 18th meeting, reveals that October 31, 2020 is the new date that the giant venue will be finished.
The “Page 1 Project Status Report | May 2019” reads as follows:
The project schedule was unchanged during the reporting period. Substantial completion is anticipated on July 31, 2020, the stadium’s opening event is expected to occur on August 16, 2020 and project closeout is currently scheduled for October 31, 2020.
That is very different from the previous Las Vegas Stadium Authority report of April of 2019, which read as follows:
The project schedule changed slightly during the reporting period. Substantial completion has been revised back to the originally reported July 31, 2020, with the opening event now slated for August 16, 2020.
That matches the actual video-blog made at Zennie62 on YouTube on January 29th of 2029, which has this title, “Oakland Raiders Las Vegas Stadium NFL Opening Date October 2020”, and is this:
This vlogger also blogged then that:
For some reason, the Oakland Raiders are really pushing this idea that the stadium will be ready for a full 2020 NFL Season. The reality, according to the Las Vegas Stadium Authority’s own documents, is that it’s not going to be able to host the Raiders for the entire 2020 NFL Stadium.
The facts, documents and also online reports that the stadium would have a three-month move in period were available as far back as May 17, 2017. That some can’t seem to find the documents or remember the reports simply means they were not reading and paying attention to planning for the Las Vegas Stadium project. Let alone using common sense: no one is going to move into an NFL stadium or a home when its still under construction – it’s finished, then you move in.
So, the Oakland Raiders have, really, two seasons to play in the logical place, the Oakland Coliseum, before going to Las Vegas and Las Vegas Stadium.
The New Reason For The Schedule Change? The Las Vegas Stadium Canopy Truss Issue
The new Las Vegas Stadium project status report also points to an affirmation that there was a giant problem with the way the canopy trusses were installed, and how that set back the stadium project. Here’s the words from the report:
GCDP indicated that the contractor has an average of 1,200 workers each day, has maintained an expanded work week and has added second shift work on Saturdays (primarily focused on steel erection). GCDP cited “substantial progress” relative to steel erection during the current reporting period, noting that fifteen of the twenty-four stadiumcanopy sections had been installed at the time of its most recent field visit, with seven more sections located on the ground in various stages of assembly.
GCDP (Grand Canyon Development Partners) did note a challenge with canopy section No. 5010, which had not been released due to an alignment issue. Now resolved, the canopy section was removed to allow for realignment of the supporting truss columns. This resulted in a delay in placing subsequent canopy sections on the west side of the stadium and will potentially delay the centering of the interior ring beam originally scheduled for July 30, 2019, to mid-August. Respecting that this remains a critical milestone date for the project, GCDP reiterated its belief that the contractor can manage the other elements of the schedule to achieve substantial completion by July 31, 2020. Notably, the second critical path issue identified by GCDP was the cable net roof and ETFE installation, anticipated for completion by mid-March 2020. GCDP noted that there is no required adjustment to the timing of this element.
Staff has requested that GCDP continue to closely monitor the progress of the project with particular attention given to the items outlined above.
From that, it’s not hard to put two and two together and come up with four: the new date of October 31, 2020 happens to be in the same report noting the canopy problem, and stating “This resulted in a delay in placing subsequent canopy sections on the west side of the stadium and will potentially delay the centering of the interior ring beam originally scheduled for July 30, 2019, to mid-August,” meaning two delay points.
The reports, which originally stated in February of 2019 that..
The project schedule was unchanged during the reporting period. Substantial completion is scheduled for August 4, 2020, with the opening game slated for August 6, 2020.
..have not mentioned any game, no football game, for 2020. A stadium “opening event” is not a football game, and now the word is the stadium will not be complete until October 31, 2020. Thus, its reasonable, at this point, to conclude that a full NFL 2020 Season can’t be played at Las Vegas Stadium.
Just as this space and this video-blogger have reported for some time.
Stay tuned.