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The Raiders’ move to Las Vegas in 2020 appears to be back on track after a brief scare over reaching an agreement on a stadium lease.
The Raiders and the Las Vegas Stadium Authority wrapped up negotiations today on a lease for the team’s events company to use a new $1.9 billion stadium for 30 years.
Raiders President Marc Badain said at last week’s meeting of the Stadium Authority board that if the lease could not be settled before next week’s NFL meetings, the team would delay its move to Las Vegas until the 2021 season.
“I think we are done with negotiating, unless the board has something that causes them a concern,” board chairman Steve Hill said.
Attorneys for the Raiders and the authority were finalizing language in the stadium lease Tuesday morning, Hill said. An updated draft will be sent to board members to review in advance of Thursday’s scheduled meeting in hopes they will approve the lease before NFL owners meet Monday and Tuesday in Chicago.
“I don’t really anticipate that there will be major concerns, so I do think that the lease will be approved in time for the owners meeting,” Hill said.
NFL owners must vote to ratify the lease and after next week, they will not meet again until October. Pushing back the vote would significantly delay an already tight schedule for stadium approvals and construction.
“Most of what we’re doing right now is just tying down everything to make sure the i’s are dotted, t’s are crossed,” Hill said. “This has been a pretty calm last three or four days, where if you asked me a week ago, it was not.”
If NFL owners approve the lease as expected, the document would become the first of a dozen necessary to be signed.
Approval by the Stadium Authority would be conditional upon completion of other agreements, most notably a shared-use contract with UNLV. The UNLV football team will play its home games at the stadium beginning in 2020, as a provision of the $750 million in public funding for the facility approved by the Nevada Legislature in October.
“I’d just like to have one of these documents put to bed, especially one that’s this important,” Hill said.
The authority ultimately will own the stadium and the land upon which it sits.
The Raiders finalized their $77.5 million purchase of 62 acres for the stadium near Russell Road and Interstate 15 earlier this month.
The Stadium Authority board meets at 1 p.m. Thursday at the Clark County Government Center. The only item of significance on its agenda is the review and potential approval of the lease.