NV lawmakers approve Raiders stadium deal

Dive Brief:

The Nevada General Assembly voted on Friday to approve $750 million of tax-backed financing necessary to build a new Raiders stadium in Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The Clark County, NV, room tax will be increased 0.88% in order to fund the state's obligation to the stadium's construction.
Earlier this week, the Senate approved the bill, which Assembly lawmakers amended to include more stadium access for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a different rental arrangement for the school. The bill also includes a room-tax increase to help pay for a $1.4 billion overhaul of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval is expected to sign the funding bill Monday in Las Vegas. With the green light from local and state legislators, the last potential hurdle to the Raiders' relocation to Las Vegas is a January NFL meeting, at which team owners will either OK or nix the move.

Dive Insight:

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said that he will not prevent the team's move to Las Vegas, although that decision is ultimately up to NFL owners. If the owners deny the Raiders' request, the team will be forced to explore other locations or to try to hammer out a new stadium deal in its current home of Oakland, CA. At the last NFL meeting, in January 2016, owners denied the Raiders' request for a move to Los Angeles.

Aside from the UNLV-related changes, the General Assembly took longer than expected to reach its decision after members got wind of a last-minute report from the Nevada Department of Transportation. The agency said almost $900 million worth of road projects would have to be moved to the top of its priority list in order to meet the traffic demands created by the proposed stadium, and lawmakers called upon NDOT Director Rudy Malfabon to explain the fiscal ramifications of such a reshuffling. Since the projects were already planned, NDOT reported that there would be no additional "fiscal impact" to the agency and that it would not request additional funds for the stadium-related work, according to the Review-Journal.

In addition to the $750 million raised through the hotel-room tax, Raiders partner Sheldon Adelson, CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., promised $650 million, and the team has pledged $500 million toward stadium costs. Before the Raiders organization began aggressively pursuing Las Vegas as its new home, Adelson had already been lobbying for a new UNLV stadium to boost the city's event-hosting potential. When Raiders officials debuted a MANICA Architecture stadium design at an August meeting of the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee, they said that the team would not come to Las Vegas without the $750 million tax-funding deal.