Dive Brief:
- The Raiders organization told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that it intends to hire the team of Mortenson Construction and McCarthy Building Companies to build the new 65,000-seat, $1.9 billion Las Vegas stadium. It is still finalizing contract details and said an official announcement will come soon.
- McCarthy, based in Henderson, NV, will serve as a local partner on the project. The team also confirmed that Manica Architecture, which designed the initial renderings of the planned stadium, will be the official designer for the project.
- The Las Vegas Stadium Authority and the Raiders still must reach an agreement on details in the stadium lease so that NFL owners can approve it at their meeting later this month. If they miss that deadline, the next opportunity for owners to green light the lease will be in October.
Dive Insight:
If NFL owners wait until October to review the lease, according to ESPN, then the team's first season in the new venue could be pushed back to 2021, a year later than originally planned. In addition to the lease issue, Clark County and the Nevada Department of Transportation must conduct their own impact and environmental reviews before construction can begin.
The NDOT has already shuffled approximately $900 million in highway projects so that the necessary infrastructure improvements can be made in time for the original opening date in 2020.
NFL owners gave the team their approval to relocate to Las Vegas back in March, even though they have historically been leery of allowing a franchise to move to the gambling hub.
As part of the relocation and construction deal, the LVSA will own the stadium, and the Raiders will lease it for an annual payment of $1. The LVSA will also finance $750 million in stadium costs with hotel tax-backed revenue approved by Nevada lawmakers. The Raiders will finance the remaining costs, with the help of a $650 million loan from Bank of America.
Mortenson has an extensive history with sports venue construction and completed the Minnesota Vikings' U.S. Bank Stadium last year more than a month ahead of schedule.
The Raiders announced an aggressive preliminary construction timeline of only 30 months, faster than any domed NFL stadium has ever been built. Mortenson's expertise in sports venues and its early completion of the Vikings' stadium are sure to have played into the team's hiring decision.
