Former NBAer Jackie Robinson "plans a groundbreaking" next Wednesday for a $1.4B Las Vegas arena, hotel and shopping project, and said that he is "using his NBA contacts to stir interest in drawing an NBA team to the facility," according to Alan Snel of the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL. The privately funded All Net Arena will cost $690M, and Robinson "has lined up an arena management heavyweight -- Philadelphia-based Comcast-Spectacor -- to schedule programming and manage the 22,000-seat retractable-roof arena." Robinson said that his funding sources "include the Carlton Group and foreign investors in the federal 'EB-5 visa' program, which allows investors to receive visas if they invest $500,000 in projects." He is "confident the project will work financially with enough revenue because he said the arena is being augmented by other revenue-makers such as the hotel and retail space." The facility "is projected to open" in early '17. Robinson said that Vegas "is on the NBA radar for a team because of the success of the NBA Summer League." Snel notes Robinson's project has "quietly moved ahead as a soccer stadium debate rages in Las Vegas, UNLV delayed its campus football stadium by two years," and construction is underway on the MGM-AEG arena. Robinson said that the arena -- "like the MGM-AEG venue that is scheduled to open in spring 2016 -- will make a run at luring the National Finals Rodeo from the Thomas & Mack Center" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 10/23).
TALKS ARE ONGOING: Global Spectrum President John Page, whose company is Comcast-Spectacor’s facility management division, said his firm is in discussions with Robinson’s group about consulting for the project. However, to this point, no deals have been signed. “We’re here to support them,” Page said. “Las Vegas has always been an interesting city, and as leagues look to expand, knowing what we do, there could be some opportunities. They came to us and we’re seeing what makes sense. Somebody (in Vegas) is going to get a team at some point” (Don Muret, Staff Writer).
