Pause if you're heard this one before — an entrepreneur wants to build a sports facility in Las Vegas.
This time, it's former NBA player Jackie Robinson, cousin of the Brooklyn Dodger great by the same name.
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According to a story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Robinson has a plan to privately build a $690 million arena on the side of an old waterpark in Las Vegas. The arena is one piece of a $1.4 billion mixed-use development and a groundbreaking is planned for next week, Robinson told the newspaper. His goal is to attract an NBA team to the 20,000-seat facility targeted to open in 2017. The signature design element by architect HKS is a retractable roof. It's the latest in a series of multiple arena and stadium proposals that have come and gone over the past 10 to 15 years.
This one really doesn't make sense, considering AEG and MGM Resorts International broke ground in May on a $375 million arena on the Vegas Strip. AEG is the same company that owns and operates Staples Center and the Los Angeles Kings, and runs many other arenas and stadiums internationally.
This project is as real as it gets. AEG, a company some have valued in the billions of dollars, has a proven track record of developing sports venues
In addition, equity partner MGM has the clout required within the city's gaming community to bring the complete the arena development by creating an "agnostic" building open to all casino properties in town, says Mark Prows, MGM's vice president of arenas.
The AEG/MGM partnership is also out front on marketing premium seats and generating the contractually-obligated revenue critical to funding sports facility construction, some priced at $1 million annually.
As it stands now, it looks like Robinson's group might be picking over the leftovers within the corporate market to buy suites, club seats and loge boxes. It's a gamble he's willing to take.