Rumor: Oak View Group Moving Forward With NBA-Ready Arena on Rio Site

By Scott Roeben, on October 03 2024
3 min read 2 comments
Las Vegas

Man, alive, we’ve been doing a lot of heaving lifting on the Las Vegas rumor-sharing lately, but it is a yoke we gladly endure to keep you in the loop on all the scoop.

We’re hearing from multiple sources Oak View Group is moving ahead with plans for an NBA-ready arena on 22 acres at Rio. Oak View Group previously announced a multibillion-dollar project (including an arena) for a site south of The Strip, but that deal appears to have gone south.

We’ve got all the juicy unconfirmed rumors, as is our wheelhouse if we knew what that actually is.

A.I. can’t get human hands right, but it just saved Oak View $35,000 on renderings.

So, back in March 2022, Oak View rattled some cages with news of a massive “multi-purpose retail and entertainment district” on 25 acres at the intersection of the I-15 and I-215. Basically, southward.

That project was supposed to break ground in 2023, but nary a ground has been broken.

There’s a reason. As we were the first to share, Oak View soured on that location and started looking elsewhere for its arena.

Local news completely missed the story, as is their wheelhouse.

Conversation about Oak View perked up again recently when our friend @LasVegasLocally, whose industry sources are second only to our own, reiterated the news the Oak View Group deal at its original site appears dead.

The nimrods at the Las Vegas Review-Journal finally pulled their heads out of their collective asses and did what they do best, made a phone call based upon the work of others, without attribution. Their source indicated Rio was being considered as a new site for the arena, yet another “No shit, Sherlock, we told you this months ago” moment for our “paper of record.”

While the Review-Journal didn’t ask why Oak View bailed on its previous site, our sources say, “partner disagreement.” Thinks JLo and Ben Affleck, but without all the Diddy.

Rio has been tight-lipped about the deal with Oak View, but our sources say the project is moving ahead, and soil samples are currently being taken on the site, due diligence before construction can begin.

The last we heard from Rio (owned by Dreamscape), they were clarifying another juicy rumor, that members of the A’s organization were meeting with Dreamscape ownership.

“The rules were you guys weren’t going to fact check!”

Our source says A’s reps were hanging out in the resort’s new Lapa Lounge. It’s very nice, so they may just have picked the spot randomly to chillax and talk about all the taxpayer money they hope to be rolling around in naked someday.

Rio has always been very communicative, at least until we asked them directly if they have a deal with Oak View Group. Crickets.

Which, in Vital Vegas speak means: Confirmed.

We trust there are a lot of steps involved before the Oak View Group arena project becomes official-official, but Oak View has a proven track record of making things happen. Unlike the A’s organization, in case that wasn’t obvious.

There’s no guarantee Oak View Group’s arena will be the home to an NBA team, but we’ve been saying for some time they’re the lead contender for a team at any arena they build (sorry MGM Resorts).

We get asked often if Rio’s parking lot could hold an NBA arena. We answer with this graphic that squeezes a number of venues into the 22 acres.

They’ll probably want a few more In-N-Outs.

Should this project happen, Dreamscape is going to look like a cabal of prescient geniuses. Which would make a damn find band name, actually.

We won’t speculate which NBA team Las Vegas will get, but odds are good that happens before we get a serious MLB team or ballpark. It sounds like Rio, which offered the A’s 22 acres for $1, is no longer an option for the A’s. That debacle is still unfolding, as the A’s have shown no evidence they have financing for a ballpark, and their partner, Bally’s Corp. is equally bereft of a financing plan for an adjoining resort.

More news to come!