DREAMSCAPE PLANS $2.1 BILLION COLOSSEUM-LIKE STADIUM

DreamScape Development Group of Dallas, Tex., is eyeing 65 acres of land just south of Las Vegas Boulevard (Blue Diamond/I-15, near Silverton Casino) for not one but two stadiums… an 80,000-seat domed stadium and a 25,000-seat arena, as part of a $2.1 billion hotel/condo/casino project.

The climate-controlled stadium takes its inspiration from the ancient Roman Colosseum with much more modern technology.

Seating in the Stadium would be cantilevered, allowing audience members to be closer to the stage and have better sight lines than other facilities. Capacity can easily be increased or decreased on the fly. From their website, DreamScape lists Stadium activities including “NCAA Division 1-A Football, Basketball and Baseball, NFL Football (exhibitions and pre-season), Arena Football, NBA Basketball (exhibitions and pre-season), MLB Baseball (exhibitions and pre-season), tennis, soccer, boxing, wrestling, speed auto and motorcycle racing, hockey, indoor track and field, mega music concerts, touring Broadway shows, and special rodeo events.”

Gladiator fighting was conspicuously absent.

The Stadium will be housed within a master planned condo/hotel/casino called Stone Castle Resorts, but details are general and vague. About the hotel, DreamScape states on their website that it will have “the best 5-star management team in the market and will provide all the top amenities that are inherent to five-star resorts.” About the casino, they plan to contract “with a well-respected gaming company which will provide all aspects for the gaming components of the development.”

With no concrete details and financing sources, it sounds as if plans could still be conceptual and as sketchy as the artist’s rendering.

The land DreamScape will be purchasing is owned by Fred Nassiri, who’s been popping up in the news lately because of his other 65-acre parcel of land he’s developing in Henderson.

Real estate investor Khusrow Roohani owns 55 acres north of Nassiri’s site. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Roohani was contacted by two groups wanting to build a stadium in his lot, offering $3 million per acre. Roohani wanted $4 million, and talks stalled.

In the Review-Journal, Mayor Oscar Goodman doubts the project will ever come to fruition, saying “Show me the money.”

Goodman has recently campaigned for a similar major league sports stadium in downtown Las Vegas without using tax money, citing the need to replace the 22-year-old Thomas & Mack Center that typically hosts large sporting events at about 20,000 seats.

DreamScape could be all it is — just a dream.