Sheldon Adelson proposes building a $1.2 billion domed stadium for UNLV football, requiring a mere two-thirds of the cost to be covered through public funding.
Hey, it never hurts to ask, right?
According the 22-page presentation, legislative action would be required to establish a budget and funding formula for the public financing. Lawmakers would need to authorize creation of a Stadium Authority Board to oversee the 42-acre site.
Enabling legislation for a “fee”-based source of public revenue is required for the $780 million in public money.
Putting fee in quote marks is a nice touch. They’re dumbasses if they agree to it, but being dumb is what makes politics go ’round, so I wouldn’t bet against it.
Get The Picture 
If there is one city that could fund a billion dollar stadium, it would be Vegas. They could fund it from casino takes from a couple of fall weekends without even signing a note.
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It’s to attract the Raiders to move from Oakland. I still struggle with the NFL owners allowing a team to move to sports gambling central.
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Build the thing and permanently move the Super Bowl there.
The NFL owes its success to gambling.
Might as well embrace it.
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Outlay: $10 million in bribes, $300 million ownership stake.
Return: $800 million upfront, $50 million annually.
That’s not free market capitalism at work, is it?
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The NFL will have to go through some twisting and turning to allow Oakland to move to Vegas. But, wait a minute all that gambling $$$$ helped build the NFL Imagine visiting teams coming to Vegas for a game and the groupies, bettors, etc.
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Meanwhile, in an NFLPA retirement home, Paul Hornung and the Ghost of Alex Karras exchange knowing looks and roll their eyes…
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I have never understood the thinking that having a football team in LV will have one iota of impact on sports gambling. It is here, has been here for many decades, and has grown consistently without the help of a team who plays eight games in LV every year. The betting line has been public info all my life, it is in newspapers, TV discussions, through betting publications, and now over the internet. Just how does that ramp up if the Raiders relocate to Sin City?
And no one looks more stupid than the city of Atlanta who is broke but building not one, but two new structures for sports while having two perfectly good arenas, both of which are less than 20 years old. Las Vegas can raise the tax on hotel rooms, restaurants, and rental cars and have this all funded by tourists ans businesses never hitting on the local taxpayer.
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