On Friday, UNLV officials and its private partner, Majestic Realty presented a 60,000 seat stadium proposal to the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents. Included in the 60,000 seat stadium is a state of the art 100-yard-long scoreboard.
The current stadium for football, Sam Boyd Stadium, is off campus about 20 minutes and is open air, which leads to a lot of hot summer nights that leave the stands rather empty. UNLV Now, as the project has been dubbed, will be fully enclosed and feature six 300-seat VIP suites and more than 50 conventional style suites which would seat 10-24 guests.
The price tag on this new stadium could hit the $800 million mark but, as the project head Don Snyder points out, a lot of that funding would come from UNLV, Majestic Realty and the “Industry” that is Las Vegas. It is realized by the hospitality industry that this stadium will put more people in their establishments.
The stadium wouldn’t be limited to just football either. As depicted in the artists renderings below, UFC fights, NCAA Basketball tournaments and post season play, MLS matches, music festivals and music awards shows are just some of the events the venue would be able to host.
Of course, the biggest wow factor comes from the planned 100-yard-long HD video screen. Viewable from 80% of the seats in the stadium, this would be a full 40 yards longer than the largest in the world, currently at Cowboys Stadium.
All of that is great but what can’t be measured is what it would do for UNLV Academics and Sports. This facility would start to draw high-caliber recruits and pull a lot more students towards the University. It could forever change the landscape of UNLV by leaps and bounds.
The meeting on Friday was for informational purposes only and a more detailed estimate cost would be presented at a February 22nd workshop. A lot of critical things need to happen within the next 6 months to a year and if all of it goes according to plan, then they could be breaking ground on a new stadium within 2 years and have it opened by 2017.
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