Soccer stadium wins 6-1 vote; goal to eliminate public dollars

A controversial plan to build a $200 million Las Vegas soccer stadium won a crucial City Council vote Wednesday, with the caveat developers work with the city to eliminate the need for a public subsidy.

The council voted 6-1 to accept the nonbinding stadium deal, with Councilman Stavros Anthony the sole dissent. A final vote on a reworked plan is expected in December.

A partnership of The Cordish Cos. and Findlay Sports &Entertainment wants the city to spend $3 million annually for 30 years — or $90 million — to borrow $46 million to help pay for the 24,000-seat stadium. The developers also want $21 million in public dollars from a tourism sales tax district around the stadium and $14 million in infrastructure work.

But if no public dollars are used to build the soccer stadium, then the city has “removed themselves from the partnership,” said Dean Howes, a sports stadium adviser working with Findlay Sports.

“They worded it poorly,” Howes said after the vote. “They have to come back and tell us what it means.”

Justin Findlay, Findlay Sports managing partner, agreed with his adviser.

“We need to better understand what was just approved,” Findlay said. “It’s obvious the city wants us, but we have to figure out the finance piece. We survived. We’re happy to be still in the game.”

It’s unclear, however, how Cordish/Findlay can build the stadium without public dollars when the private development team said the project’s profit margin is so thin.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Findlay said.

A City Council majority said they do not want to spend $3 million in public dollars annually to borrow the $46 million for the stadium. But did the approved motion include eliminating the $21 million expected from the tourism district and $14 million in infrastructure help?

Findlay and Howes did not know.

Council member Lois Tarkanian said she would have voted against the nonbinding deal, joining Bob Beers, Bob Coffin and Anthony to kill the funding proposal, if public dollars were used.

But council member Ricki Barlow moved to approve the deal with the condition that the city work to cut public money out of the funding proposal.

Now, the city and Cordish/Findlay have two months to figure out how to build a public-private stadium without public dollars, even as they compete with at least five other cities hoping to land a Major League Soccer expansion team.

Cordish at the last minute sweetened the deal, saying the Baltimore-based company would also build $250 million worth of retail and commercial development next to stadium.

Cordish Chief Operating Officer Zed Smith unveiled the new development proposal at the City Council meeting, but the extra development was not part of the nonbinding deal that was voted on by the council.

“The deal has gotten much better,” Ross said.

“That $250 million was a game-changer,” observed Kristal Glass, a Summerlin resident and soccer fan.

Cordish’s $250 million development pledge would also be part of the final vote in December.

During the hearing, Findlay, whose family owns a long-established chain of Nevada auto dealerships, made a passionate plea to continue the stadium process until the December vote.

Likewise for Mayor Carolyn Goodman, who looked at Coffin when council members were discussing the issue and implored him to keep the deal alive for another 10 weeks.

But Anthony suggested Cordish could take some of the money for the $250 million new development and redirect it to the soccer stadium, eliminating the need for a public subsidy.

Beers agreed, telling the developers that would earn them “seven very happy ‘yes’ votes.”

Opponents of the deal said the annual $3 million payments over 30 years would take money from parks projects. The money comes from hotel room tax collections and now pays for city parks projects.

Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Follow @BicycleManSnel on Twitter.