If the proposed 40,000-seat stadium on UNLV’s campus is built, it could be the magnet that finally attracts a major league sports franchise to Las Vegas.
However, the top executives of Majestic Realty, the project’s developers, were treading lightly on the notion of the NBA or NHL placing a team in the facility when the preliminary plans were unveiled Tuesday at the Silverton.
“It’s way too early to get into any of that,” said Silverton president Craig Cavileer, who, with Majestic chairman and CEO Ed Roski, is spearheading the public-private partnership plan with UNLV. “This project is not contingent on having professional sports. However, when it gets built, it will be ready for that and to add another layer to go with UNLV sports and other events.”
NBA spokesman Tim Frank said Tuesday the league is aware of the proposed project but said it would not comment. When the NBA held its 2007 All-Star Game at the Thomas & Mack Center, commissioner David Stern said that unless a modern facility was developed, the league would not consider returning to Las Vegas.
Roski, who helped build Staples Center in Los Angeles and is part-owner of the NBA’s Lakers and the NHL’s Kings, said the pro sports discussion will have its time and place.
“At some point, we’ll sit down with the pro leagues,” Roski said. “Right now, it’s too early.”
Roski said no NBA or NHL owner has approached him about one day being a tenant in the proposed facility, and he has not talked directly with either Stern or NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. But Roski conceded that if the proposed stadium was built, it would have a great chance to, at minimum, lure both league’s All-Star weekends.
“I’m sure they would be very interested,” he said.
UNLV basketball coach Lon Kruger, whose team possibly would leave the Thomas & Mack for the new on-campus venue, said he’d have no problem sharing the building with the NBA.
“Absolutely,” Kruger said. “If it’s good for the city, I’m all for it.”
Cavileer said the stadium also would be an ideal place to attract combat sports.
“We’d love to be the home of the UFC,” Cavileer said of the Las Vegas-based mixed martial arts giant. “We’d also love to have the big fights (at the stadium).”
Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said for a megafight such as the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley welterweight title showdown on May 7, a 40,000-seat facility would work.
“It’s too big for the ordinary events; the MGM is sufficient for those,” Arum said of the 16,270-seat Grand Garden, which will host Pacquiao-Mosley. “But there would be events that would be a good fit for that venue. Pacquiao vs. Mosley would do well in that kind of building.”
Contact reporter Steve Carp at [email protected] or 702-387-2913.
