Plans for a professional soccer stadium in downtown Las Vegas will live for at least another two months after a City Council vote Tuesday afternoon.
Minutes ago, the Council voted 6-1 to bring financing plans for a stadium back to the council for a final Dec. 8 vote.
Councilman Ricki Barlow, whose district includes Symphony Park, where developers want to build the stadium, saved the plan by demanding that the city and developers work, from now until December, to eliminate public funding in the stadium.
The plan the council was considering included $50 million in city-backed bonds, much of which would have been paid for by taking money from city park funds.
Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian was the swing vote who was swayed by Barlow's amendment.
"The people in my ward agree they like the idea of a stadium and a soccer team and are not worried about additional time (to study the plan)," she said.
Cordish Cos. of Baltimore and Las Vegas' Findlay Sports & Entertainment want to build a stadium downtown fit for a Major League Soccer team. The stadium's cost is estimated at $200 million. Findlay and Cordish say they would spend some $100 million to purchase a team.
Original plans called for the city to pay 75 percent, or about $150 million, of the stadium's upfront costs. That percent would be reduced to about 50 percent with rent revenues and other payments over three decades.
When the developers saw that plan wasn't going to fly with most City Council members, they reduced the city's amount to $50 million.
Tarkanian added that the she thinks it's possible to eliminate public funding altogether "because you have a lot of brains in Cordish (Companies), you have a lot of brains in Findlay."
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