-The stories that shaped Nevada in 2025 and what journalists are looking ahead to in 2026, that's this week on Nevada Week.

♪♪ -Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt and other supporters.

-Welcome to Nevada Week.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

And 2026 is set to be an eventful year in the Silver State.

Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo is up for re-election after not one but two hectic legislative sessions in 2025.

2026 could also be the year Las Vegas gets an NBA team.

This after the A's broke ground on their future baseball stadium last year.

Here now to reflect on 2025's biggest moments and look ahead to what's on Nevada's agenda in 2026 are Jessica Hill, news and politics reporter for the Associated Press; Mick Akers, sports, business, and transportation reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal; and Tyler Bischoff, host of the Technically Correct with Tyler Bischoff podcast.

Welcome all.

Tyler, you got your own little solo shot there.

-I know.

I got my name twice there, too, to start.

-First time on this show.

-Killin' it.

-Yeah, we're expecting a lot out of you.

But Jessica, I want to start with you.

The governor's race that I just mentioned between incumbent Republican Governor Joe Lombardo and then Aaron Ford, the Democratic Attorney General, how competitive is that expected to be?

(Jessica Hill) It's expected to be pretty competitive.

Governor Lombardo is considered one of the most vulnerable Republican governors in the country, so a lot of eyes will be on Nevada in 2026.

As you know, it's a big battleground state.

Donald Trump was the first Republican to win the Presidency here in Nevada in over like 20 years, since 2008.

And yet, you know, Clark County is super blue, so it could go either way.

Attorney General Ford is like the likely candidate, but there are some other Democrats that, you know, you never know how things will shape up in the next several months here.

-Who?

Who are you thinking might pop out?

-Well, Alexis Hill is one of the other candidates, and she's, she released some poll saying that she is doing better than people thought that she might be doing.

-She released the poll?

-She did, yeah.

-What's her background?

-She is up in Washoe County.

She's a Washoe County Commissioner.

-Okay.

And then why is this believed to be a vulnerable spot for the governor?

-Well, I mean, I think, you know, Nevada's, as you know, a big purple state.

So it could go either way.

He is a more moderate Republican, but also he has to ride on, like, you know, Donald Trump's coattail.

So if people don't like Donald Trump, then maybe he could also be voted out, too.

-Okay.

So elections coming up in 2026.

Also Las Vegas potentially getting an NBA team.

There has been speculation around this for years.

So what is different, Tyler, about 2026?

(Tyler Bischoff) Mainly that Adam Silver just told us before the NBA Cup final that they're planning to make a decision on if they're going to expand for 2026.

It feels like for the last decade that's always, Give us five years and we'll see.

But now we actually have a timeline now.

He didn't say we're going to get an NBA team or that they are going to expand, but at least they put a timeline on themselves to say, This is when we could decide on if we're going to expand to two more cities, which Vegas and Seattle would be the most likely cities to get one if they do decide to expand.

-Adam Silver being the Commissioner of the NBA.

Mick, what is involved in this process to get them to the decision they're going to reveal in 2026?

(Mick Akers) Yeah.

So they set up a committee of, you know, some of the owners and such, kind of looking at the financials, how much revenue they might lose if they add two more teams.

So that's another piece of the pie.

That's a big part of it.

And then, you know, obviously have to maybe realign some of the conferences, if you add two West Coast teams, right?

They're gonna have to look at that as well.

So they've been looking at that since about October.

So like he said, Silver said, Hey, maybe next year we're gonna say hey, we'll have some kind of answer on this.

He only mentioned Seattle and Vegas by name during that in his press conference, so that kind of shows you which ones they are looking at.

It's been, you know, rumored for a long time now.

A lot of the financials is what is the main part right now that they're going at because, you know, all the owners want the money, right?

-Explain that more.

Why would they lose revenue by expanding?

-The TV contract, they with all the partners, they re-signed a new deal with that.

So they have the shared revenue from all the TV contracts.

So each team gets a pie of that, a piece of that pie.

So you bring in two new cities, that's going to be two new people taking from the same share.

It's not going to add anything new.

They do have to pay a expansion fee, which would be several billion dollars, which will be also dispersed with the other teams.

So I think that can kind of take that hit.

If the owners are like, Well, we don't want to lose the TV revenue that we're getting now, but if they see that, the expansion fee, then maybe they'll be a little bit more open to, you know, bringing on two more teams.

-Tyler, any insight into that?

Do you believe that argument that they will lose revenue by expanding?

-So in the short term, no, because they'll get a $6 billion expansion fee, or whatever they set it at per team.

So they get to split 12 billion.

The question is in the long term, because as you sign a second television deal with 32 teams instead of 30 and then a third television deal, you probably do start to lose money in the long term.

But how many owners are going to be here for 30 years for three television deals, and they're the ones making the decisions now.

I can understand why they might look at it and say, Hey, eventually we'll lose a share of all of our television money and it'll go down.

But the other part of the revenue is they want to start a league in Europe and have 12 teams or so, and the reported potential expansion fee for these teams in Europe who wouldn't play in the NBA, is 500 million per team.

So in theory, they could get $6 billion from 12 teams in Europe and not have to expand domestically.

And they get the money that way without having to give up television rights, or the share of the television rights, too.

So I feel like Adam Silver is using that as leverage to try to say, Hey, we don't have to expand to Vegas and Seattle, but it might be the truth that they say, We don't want to do domestic expansion; let's focus on NBA Europe and take that money, and we'll worry about Vegas and Seattle 5 years, 10 years from now when we want to do that.

-Okay.

We're going to talk more about where the potential arena might be, ahead.

But let's go back to the governor's race.

And Governor Lombardo, he passed a big crime bill in this special session in November.

Seems like it's already been so long, but it's only been a couple months.

And that was big for him, a big win, because he's the former sheriff here in town.

What was not passed was that film tax credit bill for the second time, because it didn't pass in the previous session either.

How does that impact him and his record?

-I think he had framed the special session as, you know, his biggest goal was passing his crime bill.

And this was just like another opportunity to maybe, you know, bring more jobs on, is kind of how he framed it.

But his staff was very clear, like, you know, Our biggest priority is the crime bill.

So I think he was trying to distance himself, no matter what the outcome of the film tax bill was.

-And that being said, you know, it might not be the end of it.

It might come back in future years.

So it remains to be seen with that.

-Well, please elaborate on that, because what would this bill have done, and how big of a deal is it that it did not get passed?

-It's definitely a big deal.

It would have brought an expanded film tax program and put in place the Summerlin film studios project, which was the Howard Hughes and Warner Brothers studio and Sony project in collaboration.

I think one of the main reasons why it didn't pass was in the special session we had heard from legislative staff that there would be a potential-- or not even potential, but likely a deficit of up to $260 million in after, like, two years of the program, once film tax-- once the credits started, you know, being put into place.

And I think that scared a lot of legislators who were on the fence and who were maybe leaning toward voting yes, but I think that that deficit had scared a lot of folks.

-Still a chance for this to come back in 2027?

-Yeah, we'll see.

I think that they're hopeful that maybe they can get another version up.

There might be some differences in it that might address some of those concerns.

-Such as?

-Maybe like a lower, you know, fiscal analysis, where it doesn't cost as much money or maybe a fewer-- like less investment from the state probably.

-Got it.

Okay.

So can you help me understand, Jessica and Mick, how the legislature approved public funding for the A's stadium and the Raiders stadium, but not for a film tax credit bill?

Is there justification for that, or is it timing?

Mick, what do you think?

-I think it's just a different setup.

With the Allegiant Stadium, they got $750 million being paid by a room tax to set up on the hotels in Las Vegas.

The A's is kind of split, where they get $180 million in tax credits from the state, $120 million from Clark County, which they're going to take out bonds, which will be repaid by a tax district set up around the ballpark itself.

And they also get $25 million from Clark County for infrastructure help for anything around the stadium.

So they have a way to pay some of that back with both of those.

And that setup with the film credit-- the film studio one's a little bit different, because it's all, you know, credits and a larger sum as well, right?

So I think they kind of looked at that, like she said, and maybe the large sum on that was kind of what scared some of them off on that one.

But the other ones that had some payback measure with it-- -Well, and I was wondering about the economy as well.

Did that play a role in wanting to give public money, do you think?

-Oh, yeah, for sure.

I mean, I think, you know, the supporters of this project really framed it as a jobs bill; this will help the economy.

It'll bring, you know, more tourists in, because if people are, like, really interested in a certain movie, then they'll come and, you know, take a look at where it's filmed.

So there are a lot of those kinds of arguments about it being, you know, beneficial for the economy.

But at the same time, as I said, you heard from fiscal staff being like, Well, we can't afford this.

The state cannot afford this right now, and I think that's scared a lot of people.

-In the sports world, Tyler, it is big debate whether public funding should be used for stadiums.

Where do you stand on that topic?

-I mean, no, it shouldn't be.

We shouldn't be giving public money to sports teams.

I work in sports media, so I'm glad that we do.

It helps me.

But in general, no.

And like, you can look at the value of all of these teams and be like, well, wait, why would we give the people valued at $2 billion hundreds of millions of dollars to build their stadium?

Just have them build it themselves.

In theory is how it should work.

And outside of the United States, most countries don't give public funds for their sports stadiums.

We're kind of the only ones that do that on this much or this regular of a basis.

So should it happen?

No, but it happens pretty much everywhere.

And the funny thing is, is the $750 million that the Raiders got is kind of getting blown by with what Missouri is going to do for-- excuse me, what Kansas is going to do for Kansas City now that the Chiefs are moving across the border and what the Bills are getting in Buffalo.

We almost got a deal at this point.

-Mick, the funding for the A's stadium, is it in place?

Is it fully guaranteed?

There's been-- There have been questions around whether the owner of the A's can actually-- -Does John Fisher have a billion dollars?

Where is it?

-They've been saying it since December 2024 that they have it all in place.

Obviously, they've been working with pulling in investors as well, and, you know, people with the team.

So they've struck a few deals.

They haven't officially told you how much they're worth.

So they're trying to get about $550 million from investors.

It was said that the Aramark deal, their concessionaire, is worth $175 million for that deal.

And they have another deal with a Korean group, about $70 million there.

So, you know, but they said, you know, said, Hey, we have the money to pay for it from the Fisher family.

And they haven't set the gross maximum price yet on the stadium, which will be like the final thing when they have all the funding in place.

That's supposed to happen sometime, you know, this year.

So, you know, they tell you it's in place.

The stadium is getting built.

So you just have to take their word for it for now.

But once the GMP is, you know, set, that's when you know some of the actual details will come out.

-What is your level of confidence that the A's stadium will open in 2028 as scheduled?

-Pretty confident.

Especially with the Allegiant Stadium process, obviously there was some doubts.

Some of that early on as well.

The Raiders were one of the least valued teams at that point when they started building that.

So people are like, does Davis family have this money right?

So fast forward now, now their valuation has jumped up into near the top five now.

So the A's are kind of looking at the same scenario, I think.

So I think he's seen a worthy investment to maybe put all that on the line and seeing that valuation go up.

-Your level of confidence?

-Pretty high.

John Fisher, like, there's legitimate criticism.

He's backed out of Oakland, and that's why they're coming here.

They're playing in a minor league ballpark, and payroll-wise, they don't spend very much money on their players.

But it would be crazy embarrassing if they don't move to Las Vegas in 2028.

Like, they started construction on this.

They blew up an entire hotel casino to do this.

And if for some reason they backed out in the middle of this year or next year, I don't know, it seemed would be too embarrassing for Las Vegas, for the LVCVA, for John Fisher, that it's just like, it's almost inconceivable they would back out of it.

-What are the chances that the A's team that plays in that stadium will be an embarrassment in 2028?

-I think they might be pretty good this upcoming season.

They play in a minor league ballpark.

Offense comes a lot easier there, and their pitching staff is not very good.

But they have six or seven really good players that are all young in their offense, and they just signed another one to an extension of seven years.

They've actually spent not a lot of money in baseball, they're not the Dodgers, but they've spent more than the A's normally have.

They're never going to be what the Dodgers are or what the Mets are in terms of spending money.

But they have started to spend some more.

So I don't think in 2028 they'll truly be bottom of the division winning 51 games.

I think they'll be competitive, but does that translate to making the playoffs?

Because in baseball, the fewest amount of teams make the playoffs.

And actually winning anything?

We'll see, but I don't think it'll be, Hey, the A's are in Vegas and they're winning 55 games and they're in last place.

-Okay.

Back to the governor's race.

You wrote a really big story last year about the potential opponent for Governor Lombardo, Aaron Ford, who is the current Attorney General here in Nevada.

And that story was about how much time he actually spent in the state in 2024.

Why pursue that story?

How did it come onto your radar?

-Yeah.

So we had just requested every single state officer's calendar for 2024, and one thing that I had noticed with my colleague was just how many trips the Attorney General had been on in 2024, which was a big year.

He was a big supporter of Harris's campaign and would help her and travel around with her for that.

But seemed like there were a lot of other trips that he went on.

He was also part of the Attorney General Association and went to France and Mexico and all these other places as part of that organization.

And we just were kind of struck by how much he traveled.

So we just went about trying to add up exactly how many days he was out of state, and we settled on 127 days.

We had got that confirmed with his campaign, actually, just to make sure.

And that's kind of how that came about.

-About a third of the year he was out of the country.

And he would argue what?

He argues that that was all work related?

-Yeah.

He'd argue that it's work related.

He'd argue that it was, you know, at some of these Association conferences, they were discussing, you know, legal action that they'd all take, you know, as a coalition of states.

He'd argue, you know, some of the opioid litigation that he's put forward was because of what he gained from going to some of these conferences.

-Okay.

I found it interesting from your reporting that Governor Lombardo, his office chose not to respond to this story.

-Right.

Yeah, they wanted, I guess, just to let the story speak for itself, probably.

-But there are people who are commenting on it, and what has the reaction been?

-I think the reaction has just been like, why have you not been in Nevada?

You want to represent Nevada, and yet you weren't here in 2024.

I think that was like the biggest criticism that I had heard is just, you know, someone who wants to be the leader of the state was not present that much.

-Okay.

And I would expect that we see that in the upcoming political ads used against him?

-Yes.

Yeah, probably.

-What will be used against Governor Lombardo?

-That's a good question.

I think they'll use his maybe ties to the President, how he has kind of bent to the President.

I think some would argue that he's kind of like walked a very fine line between wanting to show support but also wanting to separate himself.

I think we'll see that.

I think we might see some immigration stance.

We might see his response to the cyber attack and, therefore, his lack of response when he wasn't present during a press conference right after the cyber attack occurred.

I think there's a few different takes that the Democrats could use.

-And you brought it up, the cyber attack.

When did that happen?

How long did it last?

How big of a deal was it?

-That happened in August, and it shut down a lot of systems and state services for a couple of weeks and took even longer to get every single, you know, front facing website up and back online.

-And when we had you on last to talk about that, you still had questions.

I think you wanted to know who was behind it.

Has that ever been discovered?

-We don't really know who is behind it yet.

We do know how it happened.

It was an employee had downloaded some software that looked like it was like administration software, but it was not.

And that's how it happened.

And then they were on-- The attacker was, like, present and in the systems for like months before we found out about it.

-Wow.

Okay.

And then the governor did not go to one press conference.

And what was the backlash from that?

Where was he?

-I think he was very surprised to see how much of the backlash there was against him.

He was up in Northern Nevada and, like, rural Nevada talking with constituents is what he said.

-Not campaigning?

-There were some campaign events as well, I believe.

But he had focused on, like the constituent services that he had done on his official duties.

But I think he had hosted something with, like, a Republican organization, I believe.

But, yeah, people were very upset that there was this big cyber attack and no one had known how bad it was, and yet we had just, you know, the governor's staff was there to answer questions and not the governor himself.

So going back to, you know, Ford being out of the state, I think people will also point to the governor not being present for, like, one of the biggest state crises he's faced as governor.

-Mick, when you are out covering, you combine business and sports, and so you have been at many press conferences involving, you know, announcements, the A's ground breaking, for example.

How often is the governor there, and do you think he can use that as, Hey, I'm-- We saw his predecessor use that, I'm the sports governor, right, Governor Sisolak?

Can Governor Lombardo do that?

Do you think he will?

Or can you just talk about his presence within the sports scene?

-Yeah.

He's always there for the major events.

He was at the groundbreaking.

I think he'll kind of lean on that one as his, even though, like, work kind of started before he got there.

So I first talked with him about it at the Super Bowl in Glendale the year before we got it here in Vegas.

So that's when he first kind of started talking about it, so he's been around it for a minute.

Usually there for any kind of, you know, any major announcement, as far as, like I said, the groundbreaking, any kind of thing with, obviously, with any of the setup with the deals with the teams and the stadiums, right?

Obviously, he had to sign off on the A's one, right?

So he has his name attached to that as well.

So he can definitely probably lean on that and say, Hey, I got this ballpark here in Vegas going, and we're bringing another team here, which equals more visitors, which equals more money.

So I'm sure he can attach his name to that.

-And then he has been at F1, right?

-Yeah.

-You also mentioned the Super Bowl.

And is there the potential that there's another Super Bowl in Las Vegas?

-Yeah.

It's almost set for it to be 2029.

Supposed to probably be announced at the spring meetings of the NFL.

So it's they did such a great job here.

The NFL right away said, We want to come back during the exiting press conference.

So-- -That was the consensus-- -Yeah.

- --that it was done well?

-Yeah.

They were instantly excited about it.

That goes back to the NFL draft when it was hosted here.

I chatted with Commissioner-- the NFL there about that, and he said, Hey, this is better than perfect.

So that was Vegas' first, like, foot in the door with a major "tent pole event," what they call it, with NFL.

So I think that kind of, you know, secured the first Super Bowl.

And now that the first Super Bowl went so well, they're bringing it back in '29.

And I think we'll be on a regular rotation with that, so maybe every five or so years that you'll see the Super Bowl back here in Vegas.

-So that's great.

We could have a Super Bowl here every year.

But will we ever have a Super Bowl winning team or, let alone, a team that will make it to the Super Bowl?

The Raiders, how would you describe this past season, Tyler?

-Not great, but-- -Not great?

Wow, you're easy.

-So bad that they got the Number One pick.

It's better to be this bad than just a little bit bad.

-And that's for sure.

I mean-- -They've one game left.

If they lose on Sunday, they will have the Number One pick in the draft.

If they win, they could fall as far as Three, but most likely, they'll be picking first in the NFL Draft.

-Okay.

And who should be-- Who should they be looking for?

-They need a quarterback.

There's two that are probably going to be first-round quarterbacks.

And Fernando Mendoza out of Indiana, who won the Heisman Trophy, and Dante Moore at Oregon.

It'll probably be one of those two.

Mendoza is probably the safer quarterback.

Dante Moore has the higher ceiling.

So how risk averse are they when they're drafting a quarterback first overall might be what decides which quarterback they take at Number One, again, assuming they get the Number One pick.

-Yes.

-But it'll probably be one of those two.

-And I've heard the argument that if they get a young quarterback, they need to have a young coach to grow alongside him.

Does that mean Pete Carroll is going to leave?

You think he's going to get fired?

-I don't know what Mark Davis is going to do, because he has cycled through coaches like crazy since being in Vegas.

-And is it Mark Davis or is it Tom Brady?

-So Mark Davis has said plenty of times, I don't know football; I want somebody that helps me.

And that's who Tom Brady is supposed to be.

Now, based on this first season with Tom Brady, it has not gone well.

-As a minority owner.

-How well will that go with Tom Brady in his ear helping him?

I don't know.

But I would guess Tom Brady's going to have a big say in everything they do this off season, including which quarterback they decide to draft and if Pete Carroll is going to come back for a second year.

-Do you think they should bring Pete Carroll back?

-No.

I think they should start with a new coach.

We've seen it.

I think it's five straight quarterbacks that were taken first overall have had their coach fired after the first year.

So if they bring Pete Carroll back, they're probably not winning much next year.

They're probably firing Pete Carroll after next season anyway.

So just start with a new coach and a new quarterback and give them the opportunity for three or more years to grow and see what they can be.

-Okay.

I wanted to get back to this on the NBA arena.

Where-- If Las Vegas gets an NBA team, where are they going to play?

-You know, the answer got a little more murky with the Oak View Group kind of pulling out of their planned arena deal on Las Vegas Boulevard and Warm Springs area.

And one of their higher ups got in some trouble with some bid rigging at another arena in Texas, Tim Leiweke.

He has major NBA ties as well, so a lot of people were seeing that saying, Oh, this is a done deal, basically, before they pulled out.

Marc Badain was the president of that.

He left them to go to the A's, and now he's leading the stadium efforts for them.

So, you know, it's tough to say, because, you know, also you spoke with Bill Foley once, and he said-- -Of the Golden Knights.

-Yeah.

I want to bring the NBA here and play at T-Mobile Arena, mentioning maybe he might upgrade T-Mobile Arena, which probably needs to kind of keep up with what's going on here in Vegas with the stadiums.

So that's like the only viable one right now is T-Mobile Arena, unless Oak View Group comes back and says, Hey, we're still looking at Vegas.

I know there was rumors that they might be trying to partner up with Rio and build on the parking lot there.

They have a massive parking lot behind it that rarely gets used, outside of, you know, some races they have there, some go-karting events or something.

-Yes.

I have seen that.

-So besides that, it's always empty, unless there's like trucks and stuff in there, right?

So plenty of room there.

So if they get that partnership, that would make sense.

There's also people, you know, kind of thinking maybe Resorts World or something.

I think that might have came because Oak View Group held a VenuesNow event at Resorts World.

So people were maybe putting two and two together, saying, Hey, maybe they might further that relationship.

So unless Oak View Group comes back and says, Hey, we're going to partner with Rio, then it's looking like T-Mobile Arena, unless there's another group that we don't know about that is eyeing Vegas right now?

-Yeah, murky for sure.

And when we learn about whether Las Vegas gets an NBA team, we'll have you both back on.

Tyler Bischoff, Mick Akers, Jessica Hill of the Associated Press, thank you all for joining Nevada Week.

-Thank you.

-And thank you for watching.

For any of the resources discussed, go to vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek, and I'll see you next week on Nevada Week.

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