LAS VEGAS (AP) Billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson pulled out of a deal Monday to build a $1.9 billion domed stadium for the Oakland Raiders in Las Vegas
The move deprives the team of a chief financial backer as it seeks to bring professional football to Las Vegas for the first time.
Adelson played an instrumental role in the effort to lure the Raiders, which eventually grew into spending $750 million in taxpayer money on the deal.
He and his family had pledged $650 million – an amount the team will have to seek from other sources.
In a statement, the Raiders acknowledged Adelson’s involvement in the project over the past year and promised to make good on owner Mark Davis’ vow to move to Las Vegas.
Adelson’s withdrawal means the Raiders will go forward with a decision pending before NFL owners, who must approve the move.
The $1.9 billion project would consist of a $500 million commitment from the Raiders, along with $750 million approved by the Nevada Legislature last year with an increase on Las Vegas hotel taxes. That leaves $650 million – Adelson’s previous pledge – to complete the funding.
Team officials said previously they were enlisting investment bank Goldman Sachs for the project.
The lease proposal would have the Raiders pay $1 a year in rent and operate the 65,000-seat stadium that would be built at a site yet to be decided, probably just off the Las Vegas Strip.
In Adelson’s terse statement, the chief executive of Las Vegas Sands Corp. declared that he had been shut out of talks that led to the lease proposal last week between the team and the public board tasked with building and owning the stadium.
“We were not only excluded from the proposed agreement,” Adelson complained, “we weren’t even aware of its existence.”
Sands owns the Venetian and Palazzo resorts and a convention center on the Las Vegas Strip, and several casinos in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau. Adelson is a big backer of Republican Party causes, and his family also owns the local newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The withdrawal of Adelson also avoids having to ask NFL team owners to waive a rule prohibiting casino operators from having ownership roles in teams.
“It’s clear the Raiders have decided their path for moving to Las Vegas does not include the Adelson family,” the statement said. “So, regrettably, we will no longer be involved in any facet of the stadium discussion.”
Gov. Brian Sandoval’s office said the lease agreement would have the Raiders shoulder $1.15 billion of the cost of the stadium, and accept operation responsibilities and risk.
“I would like to thank the Adelson family for their role in bringing a publicly-owned stadium to Las Vegas,” said the Republican governor, who called lawmakers into a special session to approve it. “It is unfortunate that they were unable to come to terms with the Raiders.”
Sandoval said terms of the law passed to fund the public portion of the project won’t change, “and the state’s contribution will not increase as a result of this announcement.”
Clark County Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak, who has been intimately involved in the stadium and Raiders plan, characterized Adelson’s departure as “a significant setback … unless Goldman Sachs has someone lined up to step into Adelson’s place.”
“I do not know how the other owners are going to react to this,” Sisolak said.
Any relocation to Las Vegas must be approved by 24 of the 32 NFL team owners. A vote is expected during league meetings in March in Phoenix.
