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In a 16-to-5 vote, the Nevada state Senate on Tuesday voted to approve a plan to use $750 million in public funds to build a new stadium for the Oakland Raiders in Las Vegas. The plan now moves to the state Assembly, which will reconvene Thursday after the end of Yom Kippur.
Opponents decry the plan as a handout to billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who has committed $650 million of his own money to build the $1.9 billion stadium, and to the Raiders, who will pitch in $500 million. The public funds would come from a tax hike (0.88 of a percentage point) on hotel rooms in Clark County, home of Las Vegas. Opponents also say the economic study being used to support the Raiders' possible move to Las Vegas is deeply flawed because it predicts that tourists to Las Vegas will purchase one-third of the tickets.
Nevada also is facing a potential $400 million budget shortfall, and critics say the public money should be used to combat that problem.
"It was bad public policy overall," said state Sen. Ruben Kihuen, a Democrat from Las Vegas who voted no. "We've seen in many, many studies that stadiums are not good public policy."
Supporters of the plan say they could not turn down the chance to create construction jobs by erecting the stadium and that the $620 million in predicted economic activity created by the stadium was too much to pass up.
Even if the Nevada Assembly approves the spending plan, Raiders owner Mark Davis would still need three-fourths of the league's owners to approve the team's relocation. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who helped shepherd the Rams' move to Los Angeles, has publicly come out in favor of the move, but Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio reported Sunday that the league's "more traditional owners" are beginning to worry about putting a team in Las Vegas because of all the temptations prevalent there.
There's also the chance that the Raiders could somehow find a way to make things work with a new stadium in Oakland, but civic leaders there have pledged that they won't use public money to pay for it.