The idea of turning the abandoned site of a Wet 'n Wild waterpark on Las Vegas Boulevard into a stadium begun in 2010, as Texas-based developer Chris Milam revealed plans for a "Silver State Arena" following the cancellation of Crown Las Vegas. It was set to break groundin September 2010 and open in 2012. Milam's company International Development Management would get the land from Sue Lowden and her husband Paul, and atop build a 20,000-seat stadium at the cost of $750 million, using about $9 million a year in redevelopment district taxes. The project stalled after Clark County rejected a proposal to fund 15% of the venue with public money and nearby residents opposed construction. By the following year, the site was changed to nearby the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, where Milam would create a whole sports complex that included new ballpark for the Las Vegas 51s. The plans came to nothing and Milam "walked away" from the baseball deal. The site near Mandalay Bay is now Allegiant Stadium. There was later another plan where the Silver State Arena would be near the M Resort in Henderson, financed by Chinese bank partners, but these plans also went nowhere.
All Net Resort and Arena
In December 2013, businessman Jackie Robinson, a former UNLV student and NBA player, announced that he was planning on using the same site of the proposed Silver State Arena to build his own arena project tentatively known as the All Net Arena and Resort. It would be a $1.4 billion privately funded complex encompassing an arena, hotel and shopping project between the SLS Las Vegas and the Fontainebleau project that could attract an NBA franchise to Las Vegas. The arena itself would cost $690 million, being operated by Comcast-Spectacor. Designed by the Cuningham Group, it was planned to open in 2017, but by April 2016, the project had been delayed until 2018 or 2019. The arena would have a total capacity of 22,800. The All Net Arena saw its ground breaking ceremony on October 29, 2014, and Robinson wanted to negotiate with Clark County expecting to begin construction. However, given the land is not owned by Robinson and the project hit financing problems, the project was still in limbo as of the end of 2015. Demolition of the property begun on 2016, and Robinson hoped to begin construction soon to get the arena finished in 30 to 36 months. In 2017, earth moving equipment and dirt haulers were working the site, and the All Net group announced it had garnered the full independent financing and an expansion, adding in larger retail and convention space, and another hotel tower with 2,000 rooms standing at 63 stories tall. The Clark County Commission approved the project on October 18, 2017. Construction was expected to begin before the end of 2017, and completion was expected by spring 2020. In early June 2019, Robinson said the $2.6 billion project was fully financed and that building designs would take approximately 45 days to receive county approval, while construction would take about three years. In August 2019, Robinson said he was in the final stages of getting his loan for the project, which was expected to cost nearly $3 billion. The project would be financed with money from Qatar, Zürich, and central banks in Europe. Moving the money into the U.S. was a lengthy process. Robinson's group had also invested more than $37 million into the project. All Net is expected to include a 44-story and 63-story hotel, a movie theater, a bowling alley, restaurants, and conference space, among other features.
