Go ahead, try to stump Mark Faber with a question about T-Mobile Arena.
How many doors are in the entrance? Easy. What’s the seating capacity for boxing? No problem. What’s the size of the adjacent outdoor plaza? A breeze.
Faber, AEG’s senior vice president of global partnerships, has been in Las Vegas since Day 1 of the project, overseeing every detail, from corporate sponsorships to engineering.
A Kansas City, Mo., native, Faber spent more than a decade overseeing the construction and opening of that city’s 19,000-capacity Sprint Center arena, completed in 2007, before coming to Las Vegas in 2013.
Faber called T-Mobile Arena “one of the finest” of AEG’s 120 facilities worldwide. He said arena officials hoped to attract more than 100 events annually.
Faber recently spoke with VEGAS INC about finishing construction, upcoming events and the possibility of a professional sports team making T-Mobile its home.
What are your plans for Toshiba Plaza outside the stadium?
It’s 2 acres, so we could accommodate groups of 500 all the way to 5,000. It’s huge.
We’ll have a stage set up there. Groups will have the opportunity to use that stage before or after an event inside the arena. Envision the Pac-12 basketball tournament. They could have a fan pep rally on the plaza, and they could use one, two or all three of the arena’s outside stage areas. It’s really cool.
We’re also going to lease the plaza for private events. Think about all of the conventions and conferences that come to town. We have an LED video wall, too — so we could have watch parties, for example, or we could have movie premieres.
Could you show the Super Bowl?
Conceivably, if we had the broadcast rights, we could do the Super Bowl or (NCAA Tournament) Final Four. If we get a hockey team and it is sold out inside but the team wants to broadcast on the LED video wall, we could do that, as well.
Was the arena designed with a hockey team in mind? If Las Vegas doesn’t get a team, will that be a problem?
No. Our arena was designed for 100 ticketed events each calendar year: 50 concerts, about 25 sporting events, 12 or so boxing and UFC matches, award shows and other events.
We seat 17,500 for hockey, 18,500 for basketball, 20,000 for boxing and UFC, and for in-stage concerts, we could do 10,000 to 12,000 plus.
Flexibility was the main key behind this building. We wanted to have flexibility to bring in professional bull riding, awards shows, etc.
If Las Vegas were to get an NHL team, would that hurt your ability to host other events?
The hockey team would work with us, their building owners, as well as the league to schedule home games. We’d also have to reserve dates after the regular season, all the way through the Stanley Cup Finals, in case the team makes it. That’s where the challenge comes in. If you’re holding those dates and you’re trying to balance concerts, boxing and UFC, you have to build around those holds. Once your NHL team is out of contention, then those holds are released and you can book other events. But some concerts want to book three months in advance, six months in advance or 12 months in advance. So you have to work around it. And we want as much programming and content as we can get in there. If we could get bookings 365 days a year, we would. It’s just a function of the marketplace.
We could even do two events in one day. So, for example, Garth Brooks is coming Fourth of July weekend, and he has two concerts in one day. At Staples Center, we’ll play a hockey game and an NBA game in the same day. It’s just a conversion process.
What effect will T-Mobile have on the MGM Grand Garden Arena?
AEG now is partners with MGM and the Garden Arena, so we’re going to book that, too. A great example is the Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley fight. It’s going to be April 9 at the Garden because we have Guns N’ Roses on April 8 and 9 at T-Mobile Arena. We wanted that fight to be in Las Vegas, so we booked it at the Grand Garden.
Also, take Black Sabbath. They sold out their show at Mandalay Bay in February, so they want to come back. The September date they wanted was booked, so they’re playing at a great venue in the Garden Arena. Because we don’t want to lose those events, the arenas give us great flexibility.
What about the city’s other arenas? Will T-Mobile cannibalize the Thomas & Mack Center or Cashman Center?
No, Thomas & Mack has UNLV, the National Finals Rodeo and family events. It will continue to host those events, and it does have a future. That gives us, as a city, great flexibility.
We want to make sure we don’t cannibalize other venues. If an event is considering leaving the city, we’ll band together to say, “What can we do to keep these events in town?” which is great. We want to work together collectively to make sure we have high-profile events in Las Vegas.
Was AEG involved in the decision to start charging for parking in MGM garages?
No, that was MGM’s decision, because it’s their resorts.
Did you encounter any surprises or challenges while engineering or building the arena?
Yeah, it’s like building a house. You have a plan, you have a design, but there will always be challenges along the way based on the timeline you set. At the end of the day, this project will come in based on the timeline we had and the budget we designed.
And certainly, when we walk around the finished building, there will be issues we might notice that the general fan won’t. That’s what we call “Day 2.” We’ll need to fix or recalibrate a few things.
What will set T-Mobile apart?
In our world, it’s all about the guest experience. We want to have guests feel comfortable and safe. We think this will transcend the marketplace.
For example, our facility will have 30 doors in one entrance. So that gives us flexibility. Depending on our crowd size, we may use 10 to 15 or 20 to 30, so people don’t have to wait in line. We have wide concourses, whereas older arenas are designed with much narrower concourses.
Levy Restaurants is our concession partner, and they’re going to offer unique food offerings. So, for example, on the main concourse, we’ll have Shake Shack. On the south side, Pizza Forte.
How many times when you go into an arena, you can’t leave until the game is over? Some arenas might have a terrace on one level or maybe two; we have terraces on all four levels. You get a view of the Strip on the east and a view of the mountains on the west.
In real estate, it’s location, location, location, and the fact that we’re right off of Interstate-15, it’s perfectly located. People can walk from the Strip to find an easy way to the arena. Or if you want to get car service, you can get there as well.