top of page
The Sands and the NFL
The history between the Las Vegas Sands Corporation and the NFL along with the vision and values of Sheldon Adelson, the late founder of the Las Vegas Sands Coporation plays an important role in my proposal.
Ever since the 1980s, the Raiders were looking to build a new stadium. The Raiders tried multiple times to try to build a new stadium in Oakland, but nothing ever materialized. They even considered sharing Levi Stadium with the 49ers in Santa Clara, California, but that never happened. The Raiders missed out on a comeback to Los Angeles when the Rams and Chargers moved there, locking them out of the southern California market. Talks about a potential move to Las Vegas got started when Raiders owner Mark Davis, attended a secret meeting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas International Gaming Research Center. The reason for the meeting was to look at Las Vegas sports betting, its effect on pro sports, how it could affect a pro sports team in Vegas and how the Raiders and the NFL could possibly work in Las Vegas. The meeting was set up by Napoleon McCallum, a former Raiders player who turned into a Las Vegas Sands employee. McCallum approached Davis about moving the team to Las Vegas before a Broncos-Raiders game on November 9, 2014, in Oakland.
On January 29th, 2016, Mark Davis met with late Las Vegas Sands owner, CEO, and founder Sheldon Adelson and other local figures and looked at the potential site for a 65,000-seat football stadium for the UNLV’s Rebels and the NFL’s Raiders. Less than a year passed and on January 26, 2017, the Raiders submitted a proposed lease agreement to the Las Vegas Stadium Authority for their new stadium with the location being on Russell Road. After hearing this news, Mr. Adelson dropped out of the stadium project and withdrew his proposed $650 million contribution for the stadium. Although he didn't directly build it, due to Mr. Adelson's business pursuits, he started a chain of events that has led the Raiders to Las Vegas. However, there is another interesting part about Sheldon Adelson's life that makes building a New York Jets stadium a perfect tribute to his legacy.
Before founding the Las Vegas Sands Corporation in 1988, in 1984 Sheldon Adelson ran a charter outfit called “Five Star Airlines.” He initially bought two TWA L-1011s to use during the winter months to fly attendees to his newly running COMDEX computer show in Las Vegas. During the summer months, Sheldon leased them back to TWA. Eventually, Sheldon Adelson started Sands Aviation as the company’s ultra-private fleet of aircraft that transports Sands executives, celebrities, and high rollers from all over the world. Sheldon Adelson loved aviation and aircraft with a passion like many things in his life and even had a model of a Boeing 747SP and a Airbus A340-500 on display in his old office conference room at "The Venetian" in Las Vegas. With Sheldon Adelson being the reason the Raiders are in Las Vegas, his love and passion for aviation and aircraft, and one time enlisting in the US Army earlier in his life, it would be most appropriate to build a world class state of the art retractable roof/fixed roof football stadium for the New York Jets. A football team named after the machines of flight that Sheldon Adelson loved so much. The stadium would also be in honor of the military and aviation history of Mitchel Field, Long Island, and the sports and musical legacy of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Sheldon Adelson was a visionary in business and started almost 50 businesses over the course of his business career. He transformed the casino industry by offering to more than just the gambling crowd. He introduced the idea that a casino can have something for everyone. Sheldon Adelson popularized the idea of an integrated resort and what better way for the Las Vegas Sands Corporation to honor their late and world changing founder then having a world class football stadium to be the centerpiece of their proposed integrated resort at the Nassau Hub?
bottom of page