Pointing To Las Vegas Stadium Problems Doesn’t Mean Raiders Stay In Oakland
ONN – Pointing To Las Vegas Stadium Problems Doesn’t Mean Raiders Stay In Oakland.
There’s an awful assumption that just because this vlogger points to problems in the development and construction of Las Vegas Stadium, the Oakland Raiders future home, it is expected to mean that the NFL team stays in Oakland.
No. As stated in the video-blog above, when news got out that Las Vegas Sands Founder and CEO Sheldon Adelson brought Oakland Raiders Owner Mark Davis to Las Vegas to find a new home for the Raiders, I assumed a man worth $30 billion would be a tough customer for the City of Oakland and the County of Alameda to compete with.
Look at what Adelson did: Brought Davis to Las Vegas, then engineered the politics to get a $750 million public stadium subsidy (the largest in sports history) passed by Nevada Governor Sandoval’s Southern Nevada Tourism and Infrastructure Committee, then strong-armed the Nevada Legislature to pass the set of laws called the Southern Nevada Tourism and Infrastructure Act. Oh, and let’s not forget, he pledged $650 million, plus any stadium project cost over-runs, and infrastructure improvement expenses.
And even though Sheldon Adelson did the disappearing act under the cover of a story that he felt like Davis was double-crossing him, really, Adelson got what he wanted: the NFL passed the resolution allowing Davis to relocate the Raiders 31 to 1. That NFL vote would not have happened had Adelson been publicly recognized as still involved in the project.
So, Adelson gets what he really wanted: some public money diverted from the expansion of The Las Vegas Convention Center. That has been a personal 1,000-year war for Mr. Adelson. He believed it was an awful use of public money, especially since he has the privately-owned Sands Expo right next door to it. (Someone forgot to tell Adelson that the growth of Las Vegas Convention Center actually helps Sands Expo, but whatever.)
So, with all of this, Oakland Raiders fans have a right to expect and demand a project that’s, as they say, done right. If Oakland’s going to lose out in a rigged competition that may be illegal, to Las Vegas, at least make it because the Las Vegas stadium was top-shelf done and well-financed.
Instead, it’s not either of those. Las Vegas Stadium has a liquidity problem. The hotel stadium tax revenue that was to finance the bond debt is already underwater, and for two reason: one the fall of visitor rates in Las Vegas, and two, because the 88/100th of one percent is too small. (That’s something this vlogger pointed out at Zennie62.com on April 15th of 2017, but the Las Vegas Stadium Authority staff said I didn’t know what I was talking about, and the news media that consists of so-called journalists hated to point to the fact that this black vlogger told everyone what the problem was long before it was acknowledged. I also said that the bond debt coverage ratio of 1.5 to 1 was also risky, and I said that on September 16th 2016, but that was also ignored by the so-called journalists. Don’t tell me there’s not racism in media.)
But I digress: the fact that the Las Vegas Stadium Bond Issue is a general obligation bond, in other words, the taxpayer pays for any revenue shortfalls, is the reason the Las Vegas Stadium Authority isn’t panicking. The fact is, Clark County Taxpayers are already on the hook for the $750 million plus interest by design. The fact that the public is woefully ignorant of public financing helps save the Las Vegas Stadium Authority from massive rebuke.
Also, as I have said, the Oakland Raiders are harmed by the Las Vegas Stadium Authority stadium bond tax rate problem: right now, the Raiders take that revenue and use it to pay for stadium construction, plus the first proceeds from the bonds. That money is short by about $10 million by my estimate – and an estimate you can do, yourself. Don’t look for a news quote, be in the 21st Century: do the math because the data is online.
Meanwhile, the Raiders seem to have slowed the construction process and that’s got to be due to the money problem. I have report, after report, of fans telling me the project is behind schedule. I’ve yet to receive an official confirmation, but the bet here is one will not come.
But what could save the entire project is a simple increase in the tax rate to 1 percent. And so that shows why the deal is not such that the Raiders will automatically stay in Oakland.
There are problems, but they’re fixable.
Stay tuned.
Oakland News Now Note: this post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest version of an experimental Zennie62Media mobile media video-blogging system network – part of a new approach to the production of media. The uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 onYouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and social media pages. The objective is real-time on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. We are constantly working to improve the system network coding and also seek interested content and media technology partners.