Stadium Authority Gets Jeremy Aguero Help In Las Vegas NFL Stadium, Signals Lack Of Trust In Oakland Raiders

Jeremy Aguero is normally the principal analyst with Applied Analysis in Las Vegas. Historically, he’s called on to render an opinion about the Las Vegas and Southern Nevada economy, or some development project within it. But a wild twist of fate – the exit of both Las Vegas Sands and Majestic Realty from the stadium effort – has caused the mild-mannered urban economist to become something akin to Superman with respect to the Oakland Raiders Las Vegas UNLV Stadium Project: a jack-of-all-trades point-person and face of the effort.

Given his basic background and the need for some organization with high level sports stadium development experience, Jeremy Aguero’s Las Vegas Stadium Authority-based role was going to change as the stadium project became more complex. Well, as of this week, that time has come. Jeremy Aguero will get help in the form of a company called Grand Canyon Development Partners, and based in Las Vegas.

According to their letter to the Las Vegas Stadium Authority, Grand Canyon Development Partners will be “review of development and construction documents, analysis of design and comparison of amenities,” and in an overview capacity. So, Grand Canyon Development Partners isn’t there to replace Jeremy Aguero, but to make his and Applied Analysis job easier: they can spot errors and ommissions in the seemingly growing number of project documents, and also work to protect the interests of the Las Vegas Stadium Authority with respect to the Oakland Raiders.

Yes, I did write that.

The letter to the Las Vegas Stadium Authority makes it clear that the Authority, and not the Raiders, are the client of Grand Canyon Development Partners. Given that the Raiders have already lost control of the public relations effort connected to the stadium, the introduction of Grand Canyon Development Partners sends a powerful signal that there is a trust issue at play.

The Las Vegas Stadium Authority doesn’t trust the Oakland Raiders, that has been made clear. It’s taken steps to have it’s own way of monitoring what the Raiders do during the rest of the process and to April of 2018.

Which just happens to be the timeframe associated with when the Raiders need to get all of the stadium documents done, else the project can be taken over by UNLV.

Interesting.

Stay tuned.