The Las Vegas City Council has voted to fund a $200 million downtown soccer stadium. That's potentially good news for rugby fans hoping the Las Vegas 7s sticks around. As we wrote last week the long-term future of the Las Vegas 7s is dependent on Vegas coming up with a suitable fix to Sam Boyd Stadium or a new stadium all together. The vote was a split 4-3 decision with the city committing $56.5 million.
However, and this is a big however, the stadium will only be built if Vegas earns a Major League Soccer expansion franchise. No MLS team, no stadium. Vegas is competing with Minneapolis, Sacramento, and San Antonio to be the last of MLS's 24 teams by the end of the decade. The stadium certainly bolsters Vegas's chances but there are still question marks about the summer heat and the viability of the region in general. The other three cities have leg ups in almost every other important category and some have stadium plans of their own.