With just over a month before MGM Resort International's T-Mobile Arena is scheduled to open, workers are "finishing cosmetic work inside and around" the $375M venue, according to Chris Kudialis of the LAS VEGAS SUN. The venue is set to open April 6, and Penta Building Group Senior Project Manager Mitch Bernard said that the "brunt of the stadium work is done." MGM Dir of PR Scott Ghertner said that organizers "aim to stage 100 to 120 events each year at the venue, including concerts and sporting events." Ghertner added that the arena will "feature two 6,400-square-feet lounges, eight ground-level bunker-style suites and 42 upper-level luxury suites." The premium locations, for which access will "cost up to $5,000 a year, were built using stone found only in Southern Nevada." Kudialis notes on the outside of the arena, a 9,000-square-foot LED media mesh board will "display advertisements, sporting events and movies to Toshiba Plaza, a 2-acre, tree-lined park between New York-New York and Monte Carlo." About 19,000 square feet of "sand-colored, painted metal panels cover the other half of the arena, a toast to the Las Vegas desert landscape." The north and east sides of the venue "have windows, which allow spectators a view of the Strip, but the south and west sides were built solid to reflect the sun during the scorching summer heat" (LAS VEGAS SUN, 3/3).
MIXED FEELINGS: In Las Vegas, J.D. Morris noted supporters of a new stadium "say it would be a major driver of tourism" to the city partly because it could "host a range of events -- such as a big stadium concert -- that can't fit in any of the area's current venues." Yet some experts, and even MGM Resorts CEO Jim Murren, have "raised questions about the project's impact and possible sources of funding." Supporters say that an NFL team "isn’t necessary to make the stadium happen." But a previous analysis of the potential for a large stadium said that a venue like that "could bring at least 15 new large events to town." Those include an "extra college bowl game, neutral site college football games, soccer matches, huge concerts and more" (LASVEGASSUN.com, 3/2).
