Two years ago, the estimated price of a new stadium for the Raiders in Las Vegas shot from $1.4 billion to as much as $2.1 billion. Now, a final number has emerged for the cost of building the team’s 65,000-seat venue.
Via the Las Vegas Sun, documents released by the Las Vegas Stadium Authority reveal a final price of $1.8 billion.
That’s a reduction in the previous projection of $1.9 billion, one of the very rare occasions when the expected price of something actually dropped with the passage of time. (In this case, it happened because the $100 million cost of the team’s practice facility has been stripped out of the stadium budget.) As more time passes, and more importantly as the bulk of the construction happens, the price could go up.
Nevada taxpayers will contribute $750 million to the project, via a 0.88-percent tax on hotel rooms in Clark County. The rest will come from the Raiders, who already have spent $180 million, and the NFL.
The stadium is scheduled to open on August 1, 2020, which means that the Raiders will need to find a home for 2019, one year after the expiration of the team’s lease at its current home in Oakland.
