(01-29-2016 10:36 PM)TheJackel Wrote:  Sands going to build stadium with or without NFL, too much opportunity / money to be made. Only problem will be MGM railroading them to try and stop it.

Reports are that Raiders are in talking with Sands owner. $1billion stadium, possibly shared with UNLV.

(01-30-2016 11:16 AM)Wolfman Wrote:  

(01-29-2016 10:36 PM)TheJackel Wrote:  Sands going to build stadium with or without NFL, too much opportunity / money to be made. Only problem will be MGM railroading them to try and stop it.

Reports are that Raiders are in talking with Sands owner. $1billion stadium, possibly shared with UNLV.

It will be a UNLV stadium that doubles as a mega events center. Sands wants it to happen even if the Raiders don't come to Las Vegas. Hotel execs have talked for years about the need for something like this and the influx of money it would be for companies within the city of Las Vegas but the problem has always been funding. UNLV came close when they partnered with Majestic but MGM ran Majestic out of town because they were going to build their own arena and they hated the idea of another venue a la Thomas and Mack that had major events that they never saw a dollar of revenue from. What's exciting now is that UNLV has backing from a major casino and it makes the completion of the project more likely but now a huge power struggle is going to occur between MGM and Sands who are directly opposed to each other. Sands wants stadium to compete with new MGM arena and MGM wants convention center updated to compete with Sands convention space. Huge battle about to occur in the city over money unless Sands pays for stadium out of pocket.

(01-16-2016 05:33 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 03:47 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  More importantly, who would want to actually *live* in Vegas?

There's nothing wrong with living in Vegas. Vegas isn't entirely composed of The Strip and while there's a gambling addict underclass, there's plenty of solid places to live far removed from The Strip. Most don't even think about The Strip unless they're going to see a show or have friends from out of town coming.

While true, those are precisely all of the things the separate Vegas from any other similar sized city. Which of course brings us to the other point, most of the draws of living in Vegas cannot be realized, legally anyway, either as a college student athlete, or if you are under 21.

(01-19-2016 10:35 AM)YNot Wrote:  

(01-18-2016 10:39 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  

(01-18-2016 09:17 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  I heard a year or two ago that Vegas was going to build a major new NFL-quality stadium that would be suitable for major bowls. Is that still on track?

The problem to that according to some folks on the MWC board is even if it becomes a reality, a bowl game after Christmas would be very expensive since Vegas along with New York is the place to be on New Year's and hotels are booked months in advance. That's why the Las Vegas Bowl hasn't been able to move the date it's played which is usually played the Saturday before Christmas.

Vegas Bowl could move the date if they wanted - the Pinstripe Bowl has played the Friday or Saturday after Christmas (mostly Saturday) - which I believe would work well for the Vegas Bowl in most years. The bowl just doesn't want to.

The excuse is that the participating schools would incur 3x the hotel expenses - which would eat away their profits.

It is not an excuse, it is a valid reason. Bowls started PURELY as away to draw people to the site of the bowl, and fill up hotel rooms and tourists' spots, at a time that is slow in most places. Because Vegas needs no help filling its hotels at that time of year, it makes zero sense to pay money (above what a gate could draw, which every major bowl pays) to draw people in, at a time when the hotels are already full. So for them, it would ONLY make sense to have a bowl before X-mas, or after NYD.

(01-18-2016 10:39 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  

(01-18-2016 09:17 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  I heard a year or two ago that Vegas was going to build a major new NFL-quality stadium that would be suitable for major bowls. Is that still on track?

The problem to that according to some folks on the MWC board is even if it becomes a reality, a bowl game after Christmas would be very expensive since Vegas along with New York is the place to be on New Year's and hotels are booked months in advance. That's why the Las Vegas Bowl hasn't been able to move the date it's played which is usually played the Saturday before Christmas.

Actually rooms are reasonable in Vegas up until about the 29th. Probably cheaper than most cities that force bowl teams to stay 4-5 nights

Because they spend too much time trying to laughably court Rick Pitino away from Louisville instead of focusing on winning.