The Las Vegas Stadium Authority on Thursday unanimously approved a stadium lease agreement with the Raiders, giving NFL owners "enough detail to win approval and move toward starting stadium construction by the end of the year" when they meet next week in Chicago, according to Richard Velotta of the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL. The agreement is an "outline for additional pacts that must be approved over the next three months." The goal is to "complete the stadium in time" for the '20 NFL season (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 5/19). Raiders President Marc Badain had "recently warned that appearing at next week's NFL owners meetings without a lease in hand could delay the Raiders' Southern Nevada debut by a year, since the next opportunity to present a lease would not be until October." ESPN.com's Paul Gutierrez notes while the approval was "not necessarily in doubt, the approval paves the way for NFL owners to vote on ratifying the lease at their spring meetings, which begin Monday" (ESPN.com, 5/19). The AP's Regina Garcia Cano noted the lease agreement is "conditional upon other agreements being reached" between the team, the LVSA board and other entities. The team would "not pay rent under the 30-year agreement, but it would have to contribute to a fund that would cover capital expenses that come up as the facility ages." The agreement also "gives the team the right to name the stadium and prohibits any type of gambling in the premises" (AP, 5/18).
BREAKING IT DOWN: The REVIEW-JOURNAL's Velotta highlights some "key points that emerged" from the agreement. StadCo, the name designated as the Raiders’ stadium company, will be required to put $2.5M a year "into a capital projects fund to finance major improvements over time." The NFL also "insisted that Raiders and NFL logos be protected intellectual property and not available for use" by the LVSA. Meanwhile, the Raiders are "locked into staying in Las Vegas for at least 30 seasons." Language was "changed from '30 years'" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 5/19).
