UNLV officials and school partner Majestic Realty on Friday “presented an update to Nevada's higher education leaders” that revealed “more design details and information on the ‘mega events’ stadium -- dubbed UNLV Now -- and what it is expected to bring to Las Vegas,” according to Paul Takahashi of the LAS VEGAS SUN. Developers said that the 60,000-seat stadium proposal “will feature a 100-yard-long video screen, making it the ‘world's largest multimedia immersive experience.’” UNLV Now will be “fully enclosed, and feature two clubs, six 300-seat VIP suites, and more than 50 conventional suites seating 10 to 24 guests.” Developers still have not “put a price on the center -- widely reported to be in the neighborhood" of $800M. But UNLV College of Hotel Administration Dean and project head Don Snyder “confirmed UNLV would be seeking more private funding beyond what Majestic provides.” Snyder said that he is “confident the hospitality industry will help fund UNLV Now” as a new stadium would help put more "heads in beds.” New events the stadium could attract “might include a Mountain West Conference football championship game, a new college football bowl game, a NFL exhibition game, the UFC International Fight Week, a championship boxing match, a soccer expo, a smaller Electric Daisy Carnival music festival, the American Country Music awards and touring concerts.” The centerpiece of the UNLV stadium will be its “monstrous video screen," which Majestic Realty's UNLV Now rep Craig Cavileer said "would be viewable from 80 percent of the seats in the venue.” The main screen would be “a full 40 yards longer than the one in Cowboys Stadium.” Plans also “call for smaller video screens in each of the stadium's four corners” (LAS VEGAS SUN, 1/12).
MULTI-PURPOSE VENUE: In Las Vegas, Alan Snel reported UNLV Now “would be part of an overall campus redevelopment project," which would also include "2,000 to 3,000 student housing units and 300,000 to 400,000 square-feet of retail space.” Cavileer said, "This is not a stadium. It's an events center. We don't need a resident team.” Architecture firm Woods Bagot Sport Global Dir Dan Meis “designed the venue for Majestic.” Cavileer said that the VIP suites would “easily go for seven figures a year.” He “envisioned major casinos or corporations buying the super suites.” Snel noted the UNLV Board of Regents is “expected to vote on the events center proposal at its Feb. 28 meeting” (LVRJ.com, 1/11). YAHOO SPORTS’ Kevin Iole reported one way “for certain the stadium would generate money is by hosting boxing and mixed martial arts matches.” Major fights “would help it pay down its debt service.” Top Rank and Golden Boy would “likely be interested in putting on a few shows a year in such a facility.” The stadium “not only could help the UNLV football team resurrect itself from virtual obscurity” but also would “put thousands of fight fans a year into it with big events” (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 1/11).
