You helped pay for the new stadium, whether you wanted to or not

Allegiant Stadium, the new boondoggle right off the freeway that's now home to the Raiders, cost (roughly) $2 billion. Tourists are now paying $750 million of that.

There's a hotel room tax (in addition to the other previously existing room taxes) of 0.88 percent. That means that for every $110 you spend, you're giving $1 to the stadium. You might reflect on just how much you really give a shit that there's a shiny new football stadium in Vegas, and how much you wanted to help pay for it. Not that you had a choice.

It's REEEEEEAL easy to tax tourists, because they can't complain and have zero influence on the process. This isn't new or unique to Vegas by any means, but I think it's grossly unfair. Those who are the beneficiaries of tax revenues should be the ones who are taxed. But if you visit Vegas for a weekend, you're forced to slip $3 or $5 or whatever into the pockets of the local bigwigs--without deriving the slightest benefit from it! Even if you think it might be somehow beneficial to be there on a game day, that's only eight Sundays out of the entire year!

I agree that compared to other Vegas ripoffs, this is small potatoes. But it's the cynical nature of it that really bothers me. "Hey, we're about three quarters of a billion short in funding for the new stadium." "Don't worry, we'll just fuck the tourists over a little bit more." "Yeah, they're used to it." "They probably won't even notice."

I think it speaks more to how the NFL can hold leverage over a municipality to pay for 100% of their stadium costs.    At least the Vegas stadium is being paid by tourists.  

Here in INdianapolis the Colts got a new stadium 100% on the local's dime....and to add insult to injury the Colts also get 100% of all concessions profits even when the stadium is not being used for one of their games.  If there is a rock concert in the stadium the Colts (not the taxpayers who built the stadium) get all of the concession profit from that too.

The bright side is stadiums do bring in alot of economic activity to their respecitve zipcode.   So its a win for hotels/restaurants and bars nearby.    I dont know if that added economic stimulus is enough to pay for the stadium.  that would be a good question for somebody who knows the answer.

I don't know how it would even be possible to quantify the economic benefit of the presence of a stadium, because you'd have to be able to make a ceteris paribus (all other things being equal) comparison between a given year with the stadium and the same year without--obviously impossible. Comparing a "stadium year" with any previous year doesn't make sense, because hundreds of other variables would come into play.

I know one thing, though. Everybody pays the higher taxes, but not everybody reaps whatever resultant economic benefit accrues. I suspect this is a lot better for nearby hotel and restaurant owners than for, say, some guy who runs an auto repair shop fifteen miles from the stadium.

I know that it's a mantra--accepted as a given--that a new stadium (and the sports teams that play in it) provides massive economic benefits to the city in which it's located. I think, however, that said benefits are greatly exaggerated and that a stadium is a horrible investment. I doubt that it returns ten cents on the taxpayer dollar.

Certainly, there are people who could not care less about the shiny new stadium and would rather that their tax dollars were spent on something less glamorous but more useful, such as, oh, more city buses so they wouldn't have to wait for an hour in the freezing rain for a ride.

Kevin you mention that some people may find it beneficial to be in Vegas on a home game day. It didn't come into play last year because the Raiders played in an empty stadium, but I've told my wife I want to avoid vacationing in Vegas when the Raiders are playing at home, and I'd have to assume other's might feel the same.

 If I see no indication over a couple seasons that home games don't  bring extra craziness to the casino areas I may change my mind, but I'll need to see it first.

Well, one thing that occured to me when I saw the location of the new stadium was, "Jesus, that's really going to add to the traffic on I-15!" Sunday afternoons, the freeway southbound is already a nightmare (and that continues for anywhere from 50 to 150 more miles). Now add to that 20,000 or so cars leaving the stadium at 4 pm...

As far as how home games would add to traffic in and around the casinos, my guess is, not that much.

My concern wasn't about the traffic, although that is a good point since I do rent a car and utilize I-15 quite a bit. I was thinking more about the accounts of some people's stays that were posted on these forums concerning their stay during NBA All Star Weekend on the strip.