Committee recommends $750M in public financing for Vegas stadium
LAS VEGAS -- A plan to build an NFL stadium in Las Vegas and lure the Raiders from Oakland cleared a major hurdle Thursday when a Nevada oversight committee voted unanimously to recommend $750 million in public funding for the project.
The Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee recommended raising the hotel tax in the Las Vegas area to help pay for a 65,000-seat domed venue that was promoted and would be partially financed by billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, CEO of Las Vegas Sands.
Proponents still need to win over the governor, the Legislature and three-quarters of NFL owners to make the project a reality, but it's a significant milestone for a city that's never had a professional football team and has been hammering out the particulars of the Raiders deal for months.
"We get an NFL team, and that is a significant step forward for Las Vegas and the community,'' committee chairman Steve Hill said about the project's potential. "Those teams bring the community together. We're going to have people wearing Raiders jerseys and high-fiving each other. ... That's not something you can put a number on.''
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/17555854/committee-recommends-750-million-public-money-las-vegas-stadium-raiders
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