Mark Davis is the new owner of the Las Vegas Aces. He has already planned to build the team a practice facility in Henderson.
But Davis might be interested in more, like an arena just for the Aces.
“Some of the lessons I learned with the Raiders is that the venue that you play in is very important to your local economy. MGM controls most of those fixed assets, such as naming rights, such as the sponsorships that go 365 days a year. We’re going to need those kind of revenue streams to build the coffers of the Aces. Whether that continues through negotiations with MGM to continue the lease or whether we do look at other places or whether we do build a place for the Aces, those are decisions that we’ll make in the near future,” Davis said.
If Mark Davis wants to generate revenue from naming rights, he is going to have to have his own arena. Right now the Aces play at the Mandalay Bay Event Center. But after the 2021 season, the Aces could be on the move to a new home venue.
The Raiders practice facility is located in Henderson and Davis plans to build a practice facility for the Aces next door. For actual games, an easy solution would be for the Aces to move into the Henderson Event Center and share a home venue with the Henderson Silver Knights.
But that would not generate revenue streams for the Aces. Again, that would take their own arena. Would Mark Davis be willing to build a new arena just for the Aces? Would Davis be able to secure public money to build an arena just for the Aces?
Davis secured $750 million in public funds to build Allegiant Stadium for the Raiders. The city of Henderson seems to be willing to hand out money and discounted land to land any professional sports.
But after spending $40 million on the Henderson Event Center, would Henderson give even more money for Davis to build a similarly sized venue? That seems too dumb for even Henderson to do.
Neither Henderson nor Las Vegas needs another venue that seats between 5,000 and 10,000. And while you can’t dismiss the chances of public money finding its way into an arena deal, Mark Davis would likely need to build an Aces arena on his own.