Oakland Raiders Release Details on Construction of New Las Vegas Stadium; Anticipated Opening Date of 2020
LAS VEGAS, NV – With the announcement of the move of the Oakland Raiders from their current eponymous home to Las Vegas come the NFL season of 2020, a firestorm of curiosity has centered on not only where their home stadium would be built, but who would be building it and when. And, in a rash of recent announcements by the Raiders management team, those questions have finally been answered.
The Raiders organization has announced that it will be employing the services of Mortenson Construction and McCarthy Building Companies will handle the construction duties involved in bringing the Raiders’ proposed Las Vegas Stadium – currently its working name – to life. The structure, designed by Manica Architecture – the Kansas firm that supplied initial concept renderings of the stadium and property when this project was still in its proposal stage – is slated to contain 65,000 seats and boasts a price tag of $1.9 billion with an anticipated opening date of 2020, according to reports.
Mortenson Construction, based out of Henderson, NV, had a long list of sporting venue construction to its name; most recently, they completed work on U.S. Bank Stadium for the Minnesota Vikings in their hometown of Kansas City, and did so a full month-and-a-half ahead of their originally scheduled completion date. Other construction credits to Mortenson’s name include Major League Baseball team Atlanta Braves’ SunTrust Park in Georgia, and the currently in-progress work on National Basketball Association team the Milwaukee Bucks’ Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center.
Mortenson will serve as the on-site construction team on the Raiders project, whereas it is currently unknown as of press time what role McCarthy Building Companies – headquartered in Henderson, NV – will be serving.
Las Vegas Stadium is the working name for the domed stadium, which will not only serve as the home base for the re-christened Las Vegas Raiders, but of the UNLV Rebels football team from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas as well. It will be located about 62 acres west of Mandalay Bay at Russell Road and Hacienda Avenue, just west of Interstate 15.
While the main goal stated by the Raiders Organization is to complete their move from Oakland to Las Vegas in time for the 2020 NFL season – and with a company with the reputation that Mortenson Construction has at the helm, this seems quite the realistic goal – the Raiders must still finalize a lease agreement with the Las Vegas Stadium Authority by the end of May, 2017; if the two parties are unable to come to terms on the arrangement, the next chance to do so will not come until October of this year. If that were to occur, it would most likely push back the start of the Raiders in Las Vegas to the 2021 NFL season, something that neither party most likely wants to happen. In addition, environmental and traffic impact studies must be preformed and pass muster before local government.
The Las Vegas Stadium is anticipated to provide a boost to the local economy, including jobs (and corresponding wages), tourism, and especially the real estate market, which has already been seeing a steady and constant increase in prosperity recently since the housing bubble pop of the mid – 2000’s. Home and rental prices have been climbing on a regular basis, and with the much-anticipated arrival of the Raiders on the horizon, real estate is looking to enter a legitimate boom period for the foreseeable future.
On March 27, 2017, NFL team owners voted nearly unanimously to approve the Raiders’ application to relocate from Oakland to Las Vegas, Nevada; the Raiders will remain in Oakland through 2019; previously, the team had moved from Oakland to Los Angeles and back again.