Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board Meeting - February 23, 2026
Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board Meeting - February 23, 2026
The Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board met on February 23, 2026, at the Las Vegas Convention Center South Hall Board Room. All members were present except Bias, White, and Co nine, establishing a quorum. The board approved the agenda and minutes from the December 4, 2025 meeting. Key topics included the 2025 financial audit, room tax performance, Allegiant Stadium community impact, a budget amendment, a personal seat license (PSL) agreement for the new baseball stadium, and construction updates on the ballpark.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of the agenda and minutes from the December 4, 2025 meeting.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No members of the public addressed the board during either public comment period.
Discussion Items
Financial Reports (Agenda Items 1–3)
- Ed Finger presented the 2025 financial statements. Room tax revenues totaled $63.5 million against a budget of $62 million, with interest income exceeding conservative estimates. Total revenues exceeded budget, while administrative expenses were meaningfully underspent. Debt service payments were $37.5 million, capital expenditures on Allegiant Stadium improvements totaled $9.7 million (below budget due to project timing), and UNLV payments were $3.6 million (including two payments to catch up from pandemic arrears). Overall expenditures were $4.7 million below budget, resulting in a nearly $20 million improvement in fund balance. The football general fund (Football Stadium Fund) decreased from $37.8 million to $7.8 million, with excess funds transferred to the waterfall residual fund, which ended the year at $56.3 million.
- C.Y. Chang of IBailey presented the audit report, concluding the financial statements are fairly presented in accordance with GAAP. However, the audit noted a noncompliance with NRS 354: the football stadium fund incurred $649,406 in expenditures related to baseball stadium formative costs, which were inconsistent with the football fund’s purpose. The issue is being remedied by repaying the football fund from newly collected baseball revenues.
- The board approved the reappointment of IBailey as the independent audit firm for fiscal year 2026, with a fee increase from $30,000 to $45,000 due to the onset of baseball financial operations.
- Ed Finger provided the recurring room tax report. Room tax collections for November and December 2025 showed year-over-year decreases, with December returning to a trend of double-digit declines. Year-to-date, room tax is down 9.6% compared to the prior year and approximately 7.5% off budget. Finger projected a $5 million shortfall in budgeted revenues for the fiscal year, which will not cause expenditure or waterfall problems.
Allegiant Stadium Performance (Agenda Item 4)
- Mr. Feldman reported on fourth-quarter 2025 events, highlighting the inaugural HBCU Classic and a successful Las Vegas Bowl (Nebraska vs. Utah). For calendar year 2025, Allegiant Stadium had its most successful year since opening, with over 1.7 million attendees, bringing total attendance since opening to over 7.5 million.
- Chairman Hill presented an overview of the stadium’s broader economic impact. 2025 was the best year for economic impact and incremental visitors—more than double original projections. Economic output was nearly four times projections; wages and salaries were up nearly 160%; and total employment generated (mostly community-based) reached nearly 11,000, compared to an original projection of approximately 6,000. Tax generation (excluding live entertainment tax) reached nearly $110 million in 2025, compared to a projected $35 million including LET in 2016. LET generation has grown significantly since Allegiant Stadium opened, and the venue is outperforming original projections in nearly every category.
UNLV Football Schedule (Agenda Item 5)
- The board approved the addition of a home game on August 29, 2026 against the Memphis Tigers to the UNLV 2025–2033 home game schedule, as per the football stadium lease and joint use agreement. The motion carried unanimously.
Football Stadium Community Oversight Committee Report (Agenda Item 6)
- Dr. Orange Weekly, committee chair, reported on the January 26 meeting. The Raiders presented their 2025 Community Benefit Plan compliance report. Key highlights: Raiders rank in the 90th percentile for workforce diversity across the NFL and the 75th percentile for female representation. Minority and women-owned vendor participation was significant through Silver and Black Hospitality and Oakview Group. Over $2.4 million was donated to community causes; more than 10,000 holiday meals were provided; and 77 community events were engaged. Raiders continue to exceed CBA workforce diversity requirements: 76% of hours worked by Oakview Group are from minority backgrounds, 74% of female workers are minorities, and 46% of all hours are from women. The Raiders also provided a $25,000 grant to the Southern Nevada Officials Association, $100,000 partnership to launch Nevada State University’s women’s flag football program, and deep ongoing partnerships with CCSD. Public commenters praised the Raiders’ outreach, including support for a single mother whose son suffered a severe injury during the HBCU Classic. The committee commended the Raiders for exceeding obligations. No action required.
Budget Amendment (Agenda Item 7)
- Ed Finger presented a budget amendment to allocate $6.7 million (additional to the regular transfer) from the football waterfall residual fund into the football stadium capital projects fund, for a total transfer of $13.5 million. This corrects a cash flow timing issue from the pandemic that put capital fund transfers one year in arrears. The amendment is budget-neutral, offset by reduced transfer to the waterfall fund. Staff recommended approval. The motion carried unanimously. Board members expressed appreciation for the impact on UNLV football and community pride.
Personal Seat License (PSL) Marketing and Sales Agreement (Agenda Item 8)
- Ed Finger and Mr. Badain presented a request to delegate authority to the chair to execute a PSL marketing and sales agreement with Athletics Stadco LLC (STADCO) for the new baseball stadium. The agreement follows Senate Bill 1 (2023 special session) and is modeled after the Allegiant Stadium PSL agreement. PSLs will be assigned to a minority portion of seats (primarily premium areas), with the authority retaining sole right to sell, revenues used for construction, and the authority fully indemnified from liability. STADCO will serve as marketing and sales agent. The chair committed not to execute the agreement until March 4, 2026, allowing time for board or public feedback that could prompt a special meeting. The motion carried unanimously. Board members thanked the A’s organization and noted community excitement for the upcoming March 7 exhibition game against the Angels.
Baseball Stadium Revenue Report (Agenda Item 9)
- Ed Finger presented the first quarterly report on revenues for the new baseball stadium from the Sports and Entertainment Improvement District (SCID). Through November 2025, $1.2 million in incremental taxes and fees (sales and use tax on construction, modified business tax) have been collected. These funds will first repay the football fund for formative expenditures (as noted in the audit). After deed transfer and before bond issuance, revenues will fund a debt service reserve and the public’s contribution to construction. Bond issuance timing is not yet determined; to date, the A’s owner is paying all construction costs from equity. Informational only.
Baseball Stadium Construction Update (Agenda Item 10)
- Tony Constantino of Grand Canyon Development Partners, the authority’s construction monitor, reported weekly site visits and praised the project’s organization and schedule adherence. Key off-site components remain a concern: the central utility plant (CUP), parking garage, and Northwest plaza/podium. He noted that CUP and garage designs have been submitted for county review, with construction anticipated to start in Q2 2026 to meet the opening timeframe. The plaza design status is unclear; it may need to start construction in early 2027 (about one year before the February 2028 opening) to be ready.
- Tyler Van Eeckhout (Mortenson McCarthy JV) provided a detailed construction update. Over 332,000 work hours have been completed. Four of five concrete buttresses are largely finished, concrete decks are approximately 50% complete, and foundation work is finished. Upcoming milestones include completion of buttresses, start of structural steel (bowl steel in March, roof steel in summer), erection of large shoring towers, and interior MEP and framing work. Current craft workforce is near 400, expected to exceed 500 by the next meeting. The project remains on schedule. A video illustrated progress from October 2025 to mid-February 2026.
- Mr. Badain added that over $300 million has been spent on the project to date, all from A’s equity. Public financing timeline is not yet set. He addressed the off-site improvements (outside the nine-acre ballpark site), confirming ongoing dialogue with Bally’s about phasing of the Tropicana site development. The team aims to provide specific phasing details by the May meeting. Board members asked about timelines for critical components; Mr. Badain confirmed that the Northwest plaza, garage, and CUP have timeline contingency options to ensure readiness for opening day in February 2028.
- Mark (A’s community relations) reported that the project exceeds SB1 workforce requirements: 77% of work hours are by target workers (women, minorities, veterans, individuals with disabilities), exceeding the 51% minimum. Small local business (SLB) participation is over 16%, exceeding the 15% goal. Community engagement efforts include partnerships with Nevada Carpenters Union, Construction vs. Cancer, Nevada Childhood Cancer Society, and Toys for Tots.
Baseball Stadium Community Oversight Committee Report (Agenda Item 11)
- Ms. Bateman reported on the committee’s February 5 meeting. The committee reviewed workforce compliance (77% target worker hours, 16% SLB participation) and community engagement by Mortenson McCarthy and the A’s. Community Benefits Director Burnett outlined validation efforts, including payroll reports and plans for an SLB participation review program. The committee thanked the contractors. Informational only.
Key Outcomes
- Approved: Agenda and minutes of December 4, 2025 (unanimous).
- Approved: Reappointment of IBailey as auditor for FY2026 with fee increase to $45,000 (unanimous).
- Approved: Addition of August 29, 2026 UNLV home game against Memphis Tigers to schedule (unanimous).
- Approved: Budget amendment transferring $13.5 million from football waterfall residual fund to capital projects fund (unanimous).
- Approved: Delegation to chair to execute PSL marketing and sales agreement with STADCO, with commitment not to sign before March 4, 2026 (unanimous).
- Informational: All other items received without action.
- Next Steps: The chair will execute the PSL agreement after March 4 unless issues arise; baseball stadium construction continues on schedule; Bally’s phasing details expected by May meeting; the football fund will be repaid from baseball revenues to resolve the audit noncompliance.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon, everybody. Uh welcome uh to the convinced center and the um Thursday, February 19th, 2026, uh Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board uh meeting. We'll call the meeting to order and I will ask Ms. Bateman to call the roll. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board. All members are present either in person or virtually, other than members uh uh bias, white, and co nine. You have a quorum and the meeting may proceed. Great, thank you. Um this is the time for the first uh public comment period. So anyone wishing to address the board, um please uh identify yourself, limit your comments to um those which are uh relate to agenda items, and please limit them to three minutes. Anybody wishing to address the board? Great. Seeing none, um I'll ask if the board has had the uh opportunity to um review the agenda and the minutes from our December 4th, 2025 uh meeting. Uh and if there are uh no adjustments to either, I'd entertain a motion to approve both. Move approval. Great. Please cast your vote. Bob, you side us aye. That passes, thank you. Um we will turn to agenda item one. And I'll stall here for a minute while we wait on Mr. Finger. It's all yours. That went faster than I expected. Mr. Chair, agenda item one is to receive a report on the 2025 financial statements and the auditors report. I'll briefly walk through the financial outcomes from fiscal year 2025, then I'll turn it over to our I daily audit manager, CY, who I was just talking to on the side here to discuss her findings and her opinion. Um the financial figures you're about to see are all within the football funds because there was no baseball revenue activity last year. So starting at the top, we budgeted $62 million in room tax. We received $63.5 million. Quick look at room tax collections from 2019 through 2025. We start with the original SNTIC forecast, overlay actual performance in each of those years, starting with the once-in-a-lifetime pandemic we went through, and then seeing recent revenues exceed the forecast at that time. million dollars in room tax we received 63 and a half million dollars quick look at room tax collections from 2019 through 2025 we start with the original snt ic forecast overlay actual performance in each of those years starting with the once in a lifetime pandemic we went through and then seeing recent revenues exceed the forecast at that time interest was and is always budgeted conservatively most of it is attached to the debt service reserve which isn't operationally usable otherwise um and I'll speak to that later so total revenues exceeded budget we budget admin expenses at three point at the full statutorily allowed amount every year and we meaningfully underspend them every year the slide includes LBCBA and county staff who provide contract staff services it also is our third party attorneys and other professional services debt service payments on bond principal and interest were 37 and a half million dollars capital expenditures on allegiance stadium improvements totaled 9.7 million below the budget basically just due to the timing of projects UNOV's payments and those represent the difference between the current football program net income and the amount that they were receiving when they operated Sam Boyd were 3.6 million dollars last year and I'll remind you that we made two UNLV payments last year as they had been being paid in a rear since the pandemic and that's foreshadowing a future agenda item in total expenditures were about 4.7 million below budget between the revenue and expenditure betterments we were nearly 20 million dollars better in what's called fund balance or which is the governmental description of an equity balance in a in this unit so then looking at reserves at your end by the way you guys know from budget presentations that we have these things called funds in the governmental accounting system that was a consolidated view of all of the football fund activity now looking at each of the funds in the reserves the football stadium which is generally akin to what is called a general fund in governments went from having 37.8 to 7.8 million dollars in the year there's no need to keep money in that fund aside from cash flow management um room tax lag basically and that money really belonged in the waterfall fund you might remember we went through a meaningful budget amendment last year to change the flow of funds and simplify the transfers and the reserve management last year from how it been previously managed the football stadium capital fund has 2.9 million in it at year end again that gets funded statutorily every year that's the fund that you guys approve in January capital projects submitted by the Raiders when they complete those document their completion and the cost of it we reimburse them up to the project cost or the amount um whichever is lower of the project football stadium debt service fund most of this money is that two year it's actually a two plus year reserve now that was uh required under the law and funded the UNLV fund is a pass-through fund so we move money in it out of the football general fund and pay the UNLV bills it doesn't keep residual equity and then the football stadium waterfall residual fund this is where everything that makes it through the waterfall accumulates we ended the year at 56.3 million dollars um that money is available in the future for capital inside or around the stadium it is also available in the future for debt service retirement in the not too distant future it's possible that we'll be in front of this board and talk about um traffic improvement pedestrian improvement outside of Legion Stadium we're having some early conversations with the county and with the Raiders about some potential for projects to that end um mr chair I'm gonna ask Ms Chang to come up here in a second and speak on the audit report but I want to talk about a noncompliance note that is in there regarding Nevada revised statute 354. Nevada revised statute 354 is the local government finance law and generally this note and she'll speak her own observation of it relates to concerns about the baseball formative expenditures being funded out of football funds originally and whether or not that was consistent with the football funds intend use intended usage and I appreciate and won't argue with the technical reason for the note I discussed it with the auditors in year one of this operation and then in year two again where they made the note I will note though that the legislator passed a law that allowed these baseball revenues required these baseball revenues before bonds to be used for said formative expenses they did not clearly solve for the temporal gap between when the bills are due and when the revenue comes in and in this case the bills were due meaningful today we'll give the first baseball revenue report and we've been working on the baseball deal for two years together there was a single practical solution to do this it was to use the money available that problem will be solved because we are collecting baseball money now the first order of operational will be to pay the football fund back for that expenditure so one and two I thought just order of operation be easier to speak to at first and now I'll ask CY to come up and give her audit report good afternoon. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Uh, chairs and members of the board. My name is C.Y. Chang from IBailey. I'm an audit manager. Um thank you for giving us the opportunity to present the results of audit for Clark County Stadium Authority, DBAS Las Vegas Stadium Authority for the year ended June 30, 2025. Our responsibility as an auditor is to express an opinion on whether the financial statements are presented fairly in all material respect in accordance with US general accepted accounting's principle and government auditing standard. We plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free of material misstatement. As part of this process, we consider internal control to help us design our audit procedure. However, our audit does not include an opinion on the effectiveness of the internal control. We issued our auditors' report dated December 15, 2025. In that report, we have concluded that the financial statements are fairly presented in all matter respect in accordance with U.S. GAAP and government auditing standard. We did not note any findings except for a matter related to the noncompliance with law and regulations that at mentioned previously.
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