And major sports stadiums often don't pay for themselves during their useful life. Case in point the Seattle Kingdome, which still had about 25% of its mortgage balance unpaid when it was razed.
Not saying there aren't economic benefits to civic projects like this that are hard to measure and hard to sell to a populace that probably won't think the whole thing through, but that doesn't relieve the government of the responsibility to honestly account for how they are being paid for, especially since the benefits will lag behind the costs several years.
I know that LV is a big city, but is it enough to support the Raiders?
They have no connection to the town, except for gamblers.
Can a team be supported fan-wise, with out of towners?
My guess is no.
They'd be fair weather fans at best.
And I'm seriously concerned about the Mob putting pressure on players, as they are in close proximity.
"Da Boss would likes it if you would drop dis pass right now. Or dere could be a problem for youse and your family."
Although the center's current square footage is massive, the Consumer Electronics Show convention outgrew it years ago, so the center needs expansion badly.
Vegas is in no danger of losing CES to any other city (no one can rival vegas for it), but the conventioneers have been grumbling that they need to transport themselves to other venues throughout the city, and given traffic during CES, it takes an hour to travel to the other venues, even if they are merely a mile away.
So the powers that be in Vegas aren't like their brethren in other cities, who raise taxes to fund social programs. Instead, these new (and temporary!) NV taxes go to economic development.