Las Vegas NBA Arena Builders Dribble Over to Rio Site

Posted on: October 6, 2024, 11:38h. 

Last updated on: October 7, 2024, 10:03h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.

There’s a reason we haven’t heard anything about that $10 billion, 20K-seat NBA arena that the Oak View Group (OVG) was supposed to break ground on last year five miles south of the Strip.

This parcel, on the northwest corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Blue Diamond Road, is where Oak View Group had planned to build its $10B NBA arena and casino hotel. The Strip can be seen at right, five miles in the distance. (Image: Google Street View)

And that reason, according to several sources, is that the project — whose plans included a 2,000-room connected casino hotel — is dead.

A financial disagreement between Denver-based OVG and Fla.-based land owner Blue Diamond Acquisition over the 25-acre site spurred OVG to kick tires at the Rio instead. Reportedly, soil samples have been extracted there.

Scott Roeben of Casino.org’s own Vital Vegas broke this story as a rumor on Twitter on July 7, and continues to dominate all local and national reporting about it.

Many hurdles must be cleared before the Oak View Group can officially announce that its NBA arena will be constructed adjacent to the Rio. However, according to multiple sources, that is the current plan. (Image: Rio)

Rio de Dinero

The Rio, if you remember, was one of three sites the Oakland A’s originally eyed for their new Las Vegas baseball stadium before settling last year on the Tropicana, which will be imploded early Wednesday morning, ostensibly so construction can begin. (The other was the site of the former Wild Wild West casino, owned by Red Rock Resorts, just off the Strip.)

In 2022, Dreamscape, the current owner of the Rio, offered the A’s 22 acres for only one dollar to build there — presumably because of all the added business the ballpark would have brought to the casino resort. The A’s reportedly passed due to concerns about the Rio’s traffic access.

Unlike the Tropicana, the Rio wouldn’t need to be imploded to host a large sports facility. It sits on more than 88 acres of land, 22 of which it considers excess.

A baseball stadium requires just 10-12 acres. The A’s currently plan to build theirs on nine acres, which many experts have warned isn’t enough land.

In order to demonstrate how much land the Rio has available, Vital Vegas superimposed Allegiant Stadium, T-Mobile Arena, six Strat towers and two In-N-Out Burgers onto this aerial photo of the acreage. (Image: Scott Roeben/Vital Vegas)

T-Mobile, which seats up to 20K attendees and could easily accommodate a new NBA team, was built on only 16 acres. However, the NHL and NBA seasons overlap, so T-Mobile’s commitment to the Vegas Golden Knights NHL team may not seem ideal to an NBA expansion team.

Nonconfirmation Confirmation

On September 20, OVG issued a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal about the project’s future that seemed to tacitly confirm its change of plans.

The statement didn’t mention the Las Vegas Boulevard site, or the 2,000-room casino hotel at all — only that “we are committed to building a world-class NBA-ready arena in Las Vegas and will share more information shortly.”

OVG has already built arenas in New York, Seattle, and Austin. Its CEO, Tim Leiweke, is the former CEO and president of the Anschutz Group, which owns the LA Lakers, the LA Kings, and the LA Galaxy. T-Mobile was, in fact, a joint venture between Anschutz and MGM Resorts.

Additionally, OVG co-founder Irving Azoff plans to use his credentials as a music executive to attract the world’s biggest performing artists to OVG’s NBA arena. Most insiders agree that his consulting position with the Sphere is what landed the Eagles, Azoff’s longtime client as a manager, their current Las Vegas residency.

Also involved in the project is Marc Badain, the former president of the Las Vegas Raiders.