Las Vegas stadium to have Caesars-branded entrance
Caesars Entertainment Corp., the operator of Caesars Palace and eight other Las Vegas casino properties, has signed a 15-year agreement to be a founding partner of the $1.8 billion Las Vegas stadium.
Financial terms of the deal announced Thursday weren’t disclosed.
As a founding partner, Caesars will host a branded stadium entrance and drop-off zone, digital signage, media, radio and print assets in addition to alumni, player and cheerleader appearances.
“We are honored to align with a company that shares the Raiders’ values of improving the local community and delivering exceptional customer service in creating this transformative project,” Raiders President Marc Badain said.
The partnership is the first Raiders deal with a gaming and hospitality company and will give Caesars customers and members of their Total Rewards loyalty club access to exclusive experiences.
High-rollers will have access to the customized Caesars-branded owners suite at the 50-yard line of the Las Vegas stadium, VIP dinners on the field, training facility events, fantasy camp participation, stadium tours and tickets to home games and most stadium events.
The Las Vegas stadium will have five entrances that could potentially have branded sponsorships, similar to the design of U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
At that stadium, the home of the Minnesota Vikings, entrances are referred to as “gates” and are sponsored by suburban Minneapolis corporations Ecolab, Pentair and Polaris as well as Verizon and Legacy.
The Caesars partnership deal is different from a stadium naming rights sponsorship the Raiders are pursuing. The team is quietly discussing naming rights to the stadium with a number of companies the team has not named. In September, team officials indicated talks are with the types of companies that have typically sponsored stadiums in the past — airlines, telecommunications companies, financial institutions and other large corporations. A team official had no comment on the status of those negotiations Thursday.
“With this deep partnership, Caesars will become an essential part of the game time ritual for Raiders fans everywhere,” said Chris Holdren, chief marketing officer for Caesars. “From activations to exclusive experiences, fans of the silver and black will see Caesars as their home on game day.”
Caesars may elaborate further later Thursday when the company has a conference call to announce its third-quarter earnings.
Casino and sports betting operators including MGM, Caesars and William Hill US, have been pursuing partnerships with leagues and teams since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a law in May that banned wagering in most states.
Partnership announcements have been trickling since May, and it’s just the beginning, said Irwin Raij, co-chair of the sports group at New York-based O’Melveny & Myers, whose clients include professional teams.
“We are going to see a lot more deals at the team level,” Raij said in response to the recent MGM-Jets partnership.
Becky Harris, chairwoman of the state Gaming Control Board, had not seen details of the Caesars deal, but said she was doubtful that regulators would have any concerns since the deal doesn’t involve gambling.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter. The Review-Journal’s Todd Prince contributed to this story.
