Raiders brass "not happy" with curve ball at SNTIC meeting in Las Vegas

The meeting with the SNTIC was held in Las Vegas today and of course it couldn't go smoothly. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss financing on various projects, and most importantly a potential new stadium that would facilitate the Raiders relocating there.

Right from the start, the meeting was hijacked by a new alternative plan proposed by committee chairman Steve Hill which was introduced less than 24 hours ago.

The introduction of this new plan did not sit well with County Commissioner Steve Sisolak, who argued it was too much to digest at such a late date.

"I can't digest this in this amount of time," said Sisolak. "I think it's unfair to bring this forward in this way."

Sharing Sisolak's disgust for this surprise new plan was Raiders president Marc Badain.

"I'll tell you point blank I'm disappointed by what we saw today," said Badain.

The alternative proposal asks to bring the 750/750 split of private to public funding to a 900/550 split. Here is the slide they showed with the two plans side by side:

Side by side comparison of the original stadium funding plan and the alternative proposed today. pic.twitter.com/RwhEJvHJRs

— J.D. Morris (@thejdmorris) June 23, 2016

Badain pointed out a couple facts in his arguments against the alternative plan.

First, he and a Magestic Realty spokesman Craig Cavileer both pointed out that the $250 million in private funding, on top of the $500 million provided by the Raiders and the NFL, is uncapped while the $750 million in public funding is capped. He added that the project is assured to go above the current $1.5 billion figure and those extra costs would be covered by private funding through Las Vegas Sands.

Then he insisted the figure that the $750 in private funding is among the highest of any new stadium constructed and the alternate plan would be unreasonable.

"Even at the 750 number is I believe the 7th largest private contribution in any stadium project," Badain added. "What you propose - the 900 million before it escalates higher than that - is the third highest."

Badain then pointed out all the work that had been put into gaining the approval from the other NFL owners over the past six months since they began this process and that presenting an alternative plan would undo that progress.

"The feeling I got from the league was very positive," Badain continued. "And everybody looking at that number and the signal that today will send, bringing the 750 down to 550, will be negative. It will be viewed as a negative."

That was the respectful response Badain gave. As reader CarolinaRaider, who was also following along with the proceedings, noted in his fanpost:

This was not received well by the Raiders. One anonymous Raider Employee was quoted to say "This is a F'ing Disaster!" and Mark Badain shook his head and said "The Raiders are not happy with what we heard today."

There are still several sites which are being discussed for the stadium currently. The primary sites discussed are at Koval and Tropicana blvd, downtown Las Vegas, and MGM's Rock in Rio. With the Riviera Casino now coming down, that site is being discussed as a possibility as well, but it would require more land to be purchased.

Las Vegas mayor Carol Goodman says nailing down a site is crucial to continuing the stadium discussion. That list of options may narrow when the committee meets again on July 11, but they won't have made a final decision by then.

Other concerns for funding raised at the meeting were for a new $1.4 billion convention center as well as $4 million for the metro police department.

It's pretty clear there are a lot of hurdles still to clear and whenever you're dealing with politicians and budgets, things can get heated and frustrating for all parties. Something in which the Raiders are well versed by this point after dealing with the City of Oakland.

What one has to wonder, though, is why just minutes after it was officially announced that Las Vegas was getting an NHL expansion team, they're suddenly attempting to change the terms on their funding proposal for a Raiders stadium. Perhaps no longer being desperate for a professional sports team has given Las Vegas a negotiating position.

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