Nevada Senate passes amended Raiders stadium bill; Sandoval to sign Monday

[alp227]

Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal

CARSON CITY — A supermajority of Nevada lawmakers on Friday pushed through legislation that will raise the room tax in Clark County to help finance a 65,000-seat domed stadium, clearing the path for the relocation of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas.

Senate Bill 1, which was amended to address concerns of some Assembly members, saw final approval when the Senate agreed to the changes.

Gov. Brian Sandoval will sign the bill in Las Vegas on Monday.

The big question Friday was whether there were enough votes in the Assembly.

Read more: http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/stadium/nevada-senate-passes-amended-raiders-stadium-bill-sandoval-sign-monday

[hibbing]

1. socialize the cost, privatize the profits n/t

[JonLP24]

2. I like Field of Schemes

Thanks for posting. I'll add their article.

Nevada senate passes $750m (or more) Raiders stadium subsidy, ball could move to NFL’s court

That didn’t take long: After a whole one day of testimony, the Nevada state senate voted 16-5 to approve raising hotel taxes to give Sands casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis $750 million (at least) for building a new stadium in Las Vegas and moving the Raiders there. The measure now goes to the state assembly, which could vote as soon as tomorrow.

The debate, such as it was, went along predictable lines: Major local power brokers, including other casino owners, lined up in favor of the subsidy deal on the grounds that it would be an economic boon; opponents said, wait, are you serious — Stanford economist Roger Noll testifying that the proposed deal was the “worst I’ve ever seen” and called the Raiders’ economic study “deeply flawed” for assuming that one-third of ticket buyers would be tourists who’d spend more than three nights in Las Vegas just to see football, which has never happened anywhere ever; and then the senate went ahead and voted for the bill, because JOBS!!!!1!!.

Sen. Aaron Ford, D-Las Vegas, said he could not face a laborer in need of work knowing “I had a chance to give you a job and I voted no.”

If that’s the bar, then no government expense for anything ever would be rejected, since it’s hard to spend money on anything without creating at least some jobs. Apparently Ford can sleep perfectly well when he considers facing laborers who could be employed by doing something else with that $750 million that might have a better bang for its buck than a football stadium — as the Reno Gazette-Journal’s Jon Ralston notes, Nevada is about to face a $400 million budget deficit that could lead to cuts in mental health, education, and other services. Even if you limited the use of hotel tax dollars to tourism spending (which the legislature doesn’t have to), it would be easy enough to use that to free up other money to spend on education — but then, you wouldn’t have a football stadium, just more schoolteachers, and those aren’t shiny.
http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2016/10/12/11683/nevada-senate-passes-750m-or-more-raiders-stadium-subsidy-ball-could-move-to-nfls-court/

[Auggie]

3. Wow -- someone was lobbying the crap out of that bill.

Another taxpayer gift for the wealthy:

From the link: The stadium would be owned by the public, and would be financed with general obligation bonds issued for a term of 30 years. Any profits from the stadium, however, would flow to the private investors, a point that generated much of the opposition to the project.

Meanwhile, the city of Oakland and Alameda County are negotiating on how to pay off nearly $100,000,000 debt incurred to lure the Raiders back to the Coliseum almost 20 years ago.



Fucking football. How and why do we support shit like this?

[JonLP24]

8. Unfortunately all the big league sports do this

Not just football but I never supported this ever since I took an economics course and would vote no or state my objections but it requires everyone else doing this otherwise they will continue to use relocation threats for new stadiums and nothing helps a relocation threat more than a relocation example.

[Auggie]

9. The Chronicle reported this morning that the senate votes weren't there

Somebody got to those lawmakers. Money just didn't talk, it screamed.

[Archae]

19. Not all.

The Green Bay Packers are still mostly fan-owned.

[JonLP24]

20. I meant leagues rather than individual teams

By the 1950s the wooden 25,000 seat arena was considered outmoded. The NFL threatened to move the franchise to Milwaukee full-time unless it got a better stadium. The city responded by building a new 32,150 seat City Stadium for the team, the first built exclusively for an NFL team, which opened in time for the 1957 season.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bay_Packers

[Archae]

21. Yeah, and the current stadium is Lambeau field.

Named after "Curley" Lambeau.

But with the team mostly owned by the fans, that means no single moneybucks owner like Irsay or the asshole who owns the Redskins or Cowboys, to blackmail the city.

We take pride in the Packers.

[turbinetree]

22. I'll second that motion--------------------

love my Green Bay Packers

[still_one]

4. The raiders will NEVER have a loyal or more passionate fan base than Oaklan

[Retired George]

5. The Raiders don't BELONG in Vegas!

[StevieM]

18. It does seem like the logical thing to do would be for the Raiders to return to L.A.

and for the Chargers to stay in San Diego.

I can't imagine the Chargers being a success in Los Angeles.

[Wellstone ruled]

6. We have one of the lowest per capita houshold incomes in the Nation.

Got a bad feeling about this jam it down the peoples throats Stadium. Do the people understand the winner is Adelson and his donation(leveraged loan)guaranteeing his estate above market interest rate return on his money..

BTW,no one is talking about the 899 million in necessary road and street work that has to be done before any of this is usable.

Clark County and the city of Las Vegas has a 52% owner occupied housing. With the probable use of Real Estate Taxes as a guarantee for the bonds that will be let,we can see what lies ahead ten to fifteen years. And that is,unafordable housing to to tax burden.

We simply do not have the Tax Base to support this Rich Guys Wet Dream.

[Mc Mike]

7. They move around so much they should change their name to the Gypsies.

One of my buddies from Sacramento is a big Raiders fan. Poor bastard.

[GWC58]

16. I still remember, to this day, how I

felt when the Colts left Baltimore, under the cover of darkness and a late March snow storm. It was surreal! The feeling I had was emptiness, a punch to the gut by drunken buffoon Robert Irsay!😠😐

[Mc Mike]

24. I was just talking about the Baltimore Colts, last week.

I don't follow football at all, now, but we had season tickets to the Steelers before they started winning in the '70's. There wasn't any real heated negative feelings for the Colts, then, or Buffalo, or Cincy or Houston in our AFC central. We hated Cleveland and they hated us. (We also hated "America's Team", but that's a digression.)

But when Model picked up and left, I felt bad for the Browns fans. I always wondered if they rooted for the Ravens, like old Brooklyn Dodger fans, or the new Browns. I felt bad for Baltimore when the Colts fled, St. Louis when the Cardinals left, Houston when the Oilers left. All those cities that had pro sport teams back then just had a lot of fans who loved the sport, were all good sized cities that deserved a sports team to represent them, the money involved wasn't as massive as it is now. That massive money is giving the teams the leverage to extort corrupt municipal officials.

Driving through St Louis with my wife in the '90's, I thought it was the stupidest thing in the world to see 2 stadiums sitting side by side, because the baseball and football teams somehow couldn't share a stadium. Then within 6 years, my pinhead mayor 'got a great idea', somehow, and our local gov was knocking down 3 Rivers Stadium, to make room for two side by side stadiums, that sit empty most of the time.

Our city payroll tax, when it's shown subdivided on the paycheck stub, shows that 2/3 of our city tax is for city schools, and 1/3 is for Water, Fire, Sanitation, Police, Public Works, everything else. But knocking down the "old" stadium, (which we owed more money on than we did the day it was built, AFTER 4 super bowl wins), and building 2 new stadiums, blew such a hole in the budget that the city gov maneuvered to get the regular city and school taxes merged, so that school money could be spent elsewhere. Suddenly, our schools have no money, have to be closed, consolidated and merged. Though they always ran with their budget in the black.

I'm not saying the situation isn't "educational" for city school kids, in a way. But billionaire sports teams owners sticking up local governments with threats to move, when they're making a zillion dollars and it's subsidized by us, and it never comes back to us or helps us, but does hurt us, is exactly what's wrong with pro sports today.

[GWC58]

10. Fix up the stadium in

Oakland. Keep the Raiders in No. California! Is this thing a "done deal?" I really do not see any pro team making it in Sin City.😵

[Auggie]

12. NFL owners still need to vote ...

but you can bet they'll look after their own. It's done.

[underpants]

11. Pete Rozelle is rolling over right about now

He knew there was no way to sell the pro game if there was even a hint of gambling. It was hard enough, and a huge leap, to play on Sundays. He knew that the college game ruled but he thought its grasp was primarily in the south to Texas. He could focus on large northern cities where the people are but the mob was very powerful at the time so it had to be squeaky clean.

Paul Hornung and Alex Karras but missed playing time for actually betting on games and associating with gangsters. Joe Namath was forced to sell partial ownership in a restaurant because some of the other owners were known gangsters or associated with them.

There was until the last 15 years or so an ironclad rule against mentioning gambling in broadcasts associated with the NFL. CBS Sports pushed the limit with Jimmy the Greek but, as I recall, he never mentioned the spread. I could be wrong about that. ESPN had Hammering Hank for one segment on Sunday mornings where he mentioned picking games but Berman "The Shwam" picked total scores without mentioning the spread. It has become commonplace now.

Rozelle would have never allowed a team in Vegas but that was when there were actual Commissioners not servants of the owners.

[Stuart G]

13. good points...thanks for posting them nt

[NHDEMFORLIFE]

14. Sports gambling

Thee are a couple of reasons why legal sports gambling provides little, if any, opportunity for game fixing or point shaving.
For one, the players make far, far more money than they did in the days of Hornung and Karras. The amount of money required to ensure a fix, which would need more than a player or two to ensure, would be astronomical. The NFL also has an army of private detectives that keep tabs on players, coaches and officials.
When an NBA ref was caught shaving points a few years ago, it alerted all major leagues to invest more money into policing. They all have, the NFL more than the others, since they have a lot more dough on hand.
Legal bookmakers in Nevada are policed by the state gambling commission, or whatever they call it. If all of a sudden the spread takes a dramatic tilt one way or the other, everyone would know there is something up and start poking around. The game would be taken off the board in a heartbeat.

[JonLP24]

15. I agree

I wanted to say something similar but you said it better than I could have.

[Brother Buzz]

17. That was then, this is now

Sportsbooks are so yesterday when the ubiquitous smartphone provides the same service.

[Nevernose]

23. We're giving Sheldon Adelson $750 million

The fourteenth richest person in the world found a way to get taxpayers to give him an extra billion with nothing in return.

It's fine for now -- construction jobs on the short run, lots of added tourists in the long run -- but the one thing Las Vegans know is that there WILL BE another economic downturn. When it happens, Nevada will be hit worst, because we always are. Then we'all be taking money from schools and roads and hospitals to pay the bonds for a stadium in which the taxpayers have no profit from nor ownership in.

Las Vegans know it, but apparently our politicians forgot this week.

[packman]

25. The Romans had it right - Bread and circuses for the masses