A scrum of casino owners and would-be owners is swarming the Clark County Commission with proposed arenas. The Las Vegas City Council may be able to get into the act, as Cordish Cos. is studying the feasibility of a stadium that’d be a dice throw from the Gold Spike downtown (and believe me, that’s a huge improvement on the previous location favored by Mayor Oscar Goodman).
Tireless entrepreneur Christopher Milam still hopes to build upon the former Wet ‘n Wild site although he’s belayed his Burj Dubai-like tower in favor of a Silver State Arena. Some $330 million of the capital would be borrowed by Archon Corp. executives Sue and Paul Lowden. It would also involve dipping into the public purse; ditto the remaining two propositions, which ride on increases in sales or entertainment taxes.
Not to be outdone, Harrah’s Entertainment offers to contribute land valued at $18 million/acre to erect a sports palace in what is now dark, vacant wasteland behind Harrah’s Las Vegas and the Imperial Palace. That would be the company’s equity contribution to what is described as a nonprofit venture. Then again, the Las Vegas Monorail very dubiously qualified for nonprofit status, which wound up being a big ripoff of the taxpayers, so caveat emptor.
Both the Milam/Lowden and Harrah’s stadiums would, if they’re successful, contribute mightily to what is already an ungodly traffic mess on the Strip. For that reason, at least, serious consideration should be given to Gary Goett‘s idea of placing an arena in the vicinity of South Point. The land in question is well to the north of where Goett’s Olympia Gaming intended to erect a casino (now indefinitely delayed), so Goett’s Southern Highlands resort project is still theoretically alive, although surely quite a few years away.
P.S.: I forgot to mention that building an arena (plus the necessary parking infrastructure) behind the IP would effectively write *finis* to the “Epicentre” metaresort that Gary Loveman was contemplating before seeking out an LBO instead.