UNLV Stadium Project May Move Forward
LAS VEGAS -- Touchdowns for the Rebel football team could soon be coming indoors when playing at home. Plans for a fixed roof stadium on the northwest part to campus are close to moving forward.
Plans for a major event center at UNLV include an on-campus indoor stadium, along with dorms and renovations at the Thomas and Mack Center. The decision on whether the plan will move forward could be decided on Friday.
The 52,000 seat project will be built near the baseball field and the tennis complex on campus. Those behind the mega-project say it is long overdue, and students agree.
"This is just a standard kind of a deal that let's us move from where we are now into a deeper, richer phase of our existence where the developer putting some serious money at risk," said UNLV President Neal Smatresk.
The developer is Majestic Reality, a company that knows a thing or two about sport venues including the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Those behind the project revealed for the first time new drawings of what the UNLV Event Center would look like. A main entrance would face Harmon Avenue near Paradise Road, and the second entrance would face the campus of UNLV.
"If all of this were to happen, people would stay longer after classes, they'd hang out more, instead of just come to school and go home," said UNLV student Andrew Kellogg.
Kellogg is from Las Vegas and a double major at UNLV. An avid sports fan, he says having an on-campus stadium would encourage more students to attend here.
"All the other big schools, they have their campus right there, so people actually go to football games. Everybody I know doesn't go because it's a 20 minute drive," he said.
And the list goes on as to what a new event center would attract.
"We can host the Republican or Democratic National Convention. We can have football games for colleges -- major bowl games. We can have Major League Soccer, World Cup soccer, giant concerts," said Smatresk.
Majestic Realty says voters will not be paying for the project. Friday, regents could give the go ahead. Groundbreaking could happen by late 2013.
