The Raiders on Thursday "submitted a draft 30-year lease agreement to the Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board and affirmed its preference" for a proposed stadium site in the southeast of the city, according to Adam Candee of the LAS VEGAS SUN. Raiders President Marc Badain and Exec VP & General Counsel Dan Ventrelle "spoke briefly before the board during the 30-minute meeting, updating the group on its progress" with the NFL. Badain said that since October the team has "made five presentations to either the full group of NFL owners or the league’s stadium and finance committees." Raiders officials "expect to receive formal feedback from the league office next week regarding questions about the team’s application to move." The team "expects another four to six weeks of 'due diligence' before meetings begin in March to review the application" (LAS VEGAS SUN, 1/27). In Las Vegas, Richard Velotta in a front-page piece reports the Raiders will have to "pay $1 a year in rent for use of a new dome." The proposed agreement "addresses every aspect of the team’s use of the stadium, from the sale of concessions and merchandise to parking and the placement of automatic teller machines." The document also "addresses stadium naming rights, advertising and broadcast rights." Badain affirmed Thursday that the team is "focused on acquiring 62 acres across Interstate 15 from Mandalay Bay for the stadium site and that team executives have begun talking with land-use planners, architects and construction executives." If the stadium is "more than 150 feet tall, the land would require a review" from the FAA before it could "be approved as a site" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 1/27).
SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED: The SUN's Candee reported the Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board on Thursday "finalized a $450,000 agreement" with Houston-based legal firm Andrews Kurth Kenyon and elected UFC Senior Exec VP & COO Ike Lawrence Epstein as its Vice Chair (LAS VEGAS SUN, 1/27). The REVIEW-JOURNAL's Velotta notes Andrews Kurth Kenyon has "provided legal services for the financing, development, leasing and operations of several major- and minor-league stadiums in Texas." They will be "collaborating with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck of Las Vegas as the authority's legal representatives" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 1/27).
COMING INTO ITS OWN: The AP's Arnie Stapleton wrote Las Vegas is "no longer a pariah for pro sports leagues." Broncos President Joe Ellis said that the "'understanding that Las Vegas is a growing, booming town and an acceptance that gambling is not much of an image deterrent as it might have been in the past' makes Nevada a desired NFL destination for the first time" (AP, 1/27).
