Cofield & Company - impartial????

[Rebel1986]

Stadium good or bad?

I understand there are a lot of questions, but it appears they are completely slanting the story in a negative way against the construction of a stadium without providing and concrete information. They also appear to cheer on those who are negative and downplay anything positive while coming up with only negative reasons why the stadium is being suggested in the first place.

What do others think?

First - according to the radio show, this stadium is going to be owned by Sheldon Adelson and he has only suggested this stadium as a way to drain money from the LVCVA so that they can't expand the convention center towards the Sands convention center. They also appear to be saying that Adelson will own or control the stadium, and that he should pay the full cost of the stadium and nothing should come from tax payers.

What I would like to know is the following:

Who will own and control the stadium which will be located on public land? Will it be controlled by Adelson or UNLV? Will any deals be made that give him or others special treatment?

Where will the tax money come from (ie room tax, casino revenue, property tax breaks, sales tax breaks at the facility, or will they try to bring out a new tax)?

Where did the tax breaks come from for the Tesla factory which I understand was an even bigger amount of money?

Will the finances be done to spread out the tax money spent in a similar way to what was done for Tesla?

How important is a professional team to the new stadium? According to the radio show this is the only reason for the stadium and that the NFL and Davis are just using LV as a pawn to get what they want in California.

Also, is the first amount requested just the opening amount to be negotiated, or is this a set in stone number, and who controls the development of the project?

 

[LasVegasReb]

Stadium good or bad?

I understand there are a lot of questions, but it appears they are completely slanting the story in a negative way against the construction of a stadium without providing and concrete information. They also appear to cheer on those who are negative and downplay anything positive while coming up with only negative reasons why the stadium is being suggested in the first place.

What do others think?

First - according to the radio show, this stadium is going to be owned by Sheldon Adelson and he has only suggested this stadium as a way to drain money from the LVCVA so that they can't expand the convention center towards the Sands convention center. They also appear to be saying that Adelson will own or control the stadium, and that he should pay the full cost of the stadium and nothing should come from tax payers.

What I would like to know is the following:

Who will own and control the stadium which will be located on public land? Will it be controlled by Adelson or UNLV? Will any deals be made that give him or others special treatment?

Where will the tax money come from (ie room tax, casino revenue, property tax breaks, sales tax breaks at the facility, or will they try to bring out a new tax)?

Where did the tax breaks come from for the Tesla factory which I understand was an even bigger amount of money?

Will the finances be done to spread out the tax money spent in a similar way to what was done for Tesla?

How important is a professional team to the new stadium? According to the radio show this is the only reason for the stadium and that the NFL and Davis are just using LV as a pawn to get what they want in California.

Also, is the first amount requested just the opening amount to be negotiated, or is this a set in stone number, and who controls the development of the project?

Along with an increase of room tax, I'd also create a stadium tax on ticket and concession sales of the stadium. The stadium sales tax may seem counter intuitive but it would ensure that the building itself is paid for regardless of operating income.

 

[RebelinWA]

The media blitz seens to be two sided for the most part. The sun/ bern has been attacking it (at least on twitter). The rj seems to swing for both teams. I ve seen rj articles/ opinion pieces that love or hate the idea with the official line being support (no surprise). Ralston decided to use the news as a way to vent old hate of the rj and its new owner.

Officially government lines have been mostly quiet, with the officially response being the typical," we're looking into it."

MGM hates it, Wynn is trying to decide if he wants to support it. Caesars and Cosmo has been silent.

 

[LasVegasReb]

The media blitz seens to be two sided for the most part. The sun/ bern has been attacking it (at least on twitter). The rj seems to swing for both teams. I ve seen rj articles/ opinion pieces that love or hate the idea with the official line being support (no surprise). Ralston decided to use the news as a way to vent old hate of the rj and its new owner.

Officially government lines have been mostly quiet, with the officially response being the typical," we're looking into it."

MGM hates it, Wynn is trying to decide if he wants to support it. Caesars and Cosmo has been silent.

Cosmo doesn't care. McBeath needs to keep them profitable and they have no $$$ to help or influence. McBeath may have an opinion and it's hard to gauge but remember he was Steve's guy until he took the Aria post. But also remember he's a UNLV grad.

 

[Bullmastiff 1]

I heard the tail end of this and felt they were not the least bit impartial.

At one point I thought they were going to start screaming for people to rise against the evil 1%.

 

[depuppy3]

Cofield has a long running rant against any public money's for stadiums. Not surprised he would take that stance.

 

[Rebel1986]

I am not sure why the MGM would have any power at all considering with their dept load they are close to complete collapse into bankruptcy. One of my brothers works for them and everyone watches day to day to see if they will keep their jobs.

 

[RebelinWA]

Yeah, mgm is a bit of a sinking ship. Lots of people jumping off.

 

[Rebel Chi-girl]

I am not sure why the MGM would have any power at all considering with their dept load they are close to complete collapse into bankruptcy. One of my brothers works for them and everyone watches day to day to see if they will keep their jobs.

MGM has always been a mess. They took a solid company, Mandalay Bay corp. , merged and have run the properties into the ground. There is a lot of nepotism and good ol boy networking there, putting unqualified family and friends in management positions. It is a cluster.

 

[Rebel Chi-girl]

I thInk Rebel1986 had a lot of good unanswered questions. Who will actually own the stadium? What taxes will provide the method of financing? What will be the revenue split? I haven't seen any statements regarding ownership or revenue sharing. If we do a room tax finance, why not finance the whole thing ourselves and bring in Sands Corp as a management partner and keep the majority of profit for UNLV? If Adelson isn't putting in more money, why do we even need him?

 

[IMReb]

Adelson will probably want the Jerry Jones model. Put up $320 million, fund the rest from taxes and fee's, have complete operating control.

http://thesportseconomist.com/2010/07/11/cowboys-stadium-financing/

 

[RRRRebels]

I can't shake the feeling that this a power move by Adelson to undercut the LVCC, which competes with his Sands Convention Center, and build up his empire at the same time.

I think Adelson expects to own, operate, and profit from this just like Jerry Jones does AT&T Stadium. This is almost a non-starter for me out of the gate. In order for this to be a massive game changer for UNLV, we need to be getting a lot of the profit from the events hosted at this stadium, ala the T&M. I'm not saying it wouldn't be a game changer just to have a world class stadium near campus that we could rent for next to nothing, but to really take us to the next level, WE need to be collecting the money from the gate, not Adelson.

My understanding is the money will be coming from a room tax and a special tax zone but also from taxes that were originally ear marked to expand the LVCC, a move Adelson was vehemently opposed to.You start throwing any kind of revenue from taxes at a project in this state and you're going to get push back from state and county agencies that are starved for cash. I can see the school districts state wide throwing a fit.

I'm not sure I understand what Tesla has to do with this.

I don't think a professional team is a must have, it'll be a nice to have. I think the stadium could succeed with or without a pro franchise in residence.

 

[Rebel1986]

It is obvious that you listened to the radio show and heard what they were saying which was one sided without the entire picture.

What Tesla has to do with this is that it is a precedent where Northern Nevada was allowed to divert over 1.25 billion through tax breaks for the new facility. When I read about all of these people up North being pissed about using their tax money (it is actually Southern Nevada taxes, but they have been good at diverting the money up North in the past) I just look at this tax diversion and feel they have nothing to say unless they cancel that project. The fact that they would remove that much money from the tax base for a facility that is almost an exclusive benefit of Northern Nevada makes me feel that our politicians should go after complete funding of a stadium with the same type of tax breaks as Tesla. A new stadium in LV would have a similar impact in the tourism industry as the Tesla factory, the only difference being that it wouldn't bring anything to Northern Nevada.

Most likely our local politicians will keep kissing the asses of Northern Nevada which will kill any stadium deal, or they will want the same type of deal for unr. Funny that unr has a stadium that is almost the same size as that of UNLV with only about 20 percent of the population base.

 

[RRRRebels]

I did not hear their show. Most of what I'm saying I've heard from fellow Rebel fans and Las Vegas residents around me this week. There are a lot of people wary of that level of public funding for the stadium that may (or may not) just make Adelson richer and disrupt/delay expansion of a competing convention center that he was openly opposed to.

I wasn't dismissing your Tesla comment, I just didn't understand the connection. I see what you're saying now. You're saying the state gave a big tax break to Tesla to get the company to build their factory here in Nevada and that primarily benefits the North. Therefore, Clark County should be able to divert a big chuck of it's taxes towards a stadium that's going to benefit the South. If it was as simple as that, they could point to the tax breaks given to the Faraday car company to build their factory here in North Las Vegas.

I have not heard much grousing from people in the North about the stadium, I know there's been a little, but like I said, I've been hearing this mostly from Clark County residents. Some Rebel fans wary of Adelson, some non-sports fans who think that amount of money would be better utilized improving our failing schools.

I'm a life long Southern Nevadan, a diehard Rebel fan and as much as I hate the Reno fans, I've never bought into the adversarial North vs. South economic fight. In Nevada, it's more City vs. Rural. Washoe and Clark county pay for the rest of the state. Both Las Vegas and Reno generate most of the tax revenue in the state, but they also consume a proportional amount to their size.

 

[Sam-I-am]

I agree with the vast majority of what was said in the OP. But, come on, we aren't talking about giants in the media. They seem to think that their negative shtick gets them more listeners and more people to call in. That sort of thinking is shortsightedly moronic regarding this specific issue. They should be pushing this from every angle and at 100 mph in every broadcast.

 

[Sam-I-am]

Cofield has a long running rant against any public money's for stadiums. Not surprised he would take that stance.

Then he should find a different job.

 

[Sam-I-am]

...
MGM hates it, Wynn is trying to decide if he wants to support it. Caesars and Cosmo has been silent.

MGM being stupid and short sided as usual. Link the Monorail from the MGM to the stadium and you increase traffic flow through the MGM properties.

Caesar & Cosmo have to be silent with their bankruptcies and financially getting by on the skin of their teeth.

If it hadn't been for Sheldon taking the forefront, there's no doubt in my mind that Steve would be behind this 100% already. If Sheldon can bring himself to letting Steve get into the spotlight with him on this, it could get done and on a big scale.