GUESTS
Craig Cavileer, President of the Silverton Hotel and Casino and lead for Majestic Realty
Don Snyder, Project Leader, UNLV Now
BY MARIE ANDRUSEWICZ -- Majestic’s Craig Cavileer says he’s ‘disappointed’ with UNLV’s decision to part wayswith his company on the stadium project, a 60,000 seat mega-venue with a price tag of $900 million.
“We’ve always been able to rally around and move the ball forward, and to be dismissed midsession and to have them continue with the vision – we’re not in misalignment over the vision, or the scale, or the scope of the project,” says Cavileer.
Where UNLV and Majestic failed to achieve alignment is in the project’s funding – the partners had been working together to lobby the legislature to create a special tax district for the stadium. But, according to Cavileer, “Just because everyone isn’t singing kumbaya around a public funding plan, that doesn’t explain getting rid of the partner that brought this project to you.”
Don Snyder, project leader for the stadium, says things change, and that as the project exists now, the university must seek buy-in from public partners beyond Majestic – specifically, the resorts.
“When this project started, it was very much a UNLV project, focused on bringing football back on campus, creating more of a campus feel,” says Snyder. “As the project evolved it became more than just a UNLV-centric project,” to involve the community as a whole.
Snyder says that Majestic was an unnecessary third party between UNLV and the resorts.
“I’m more comfortable today that the project is going to move ahead with the two entities that will benefit from the project.”