Visitors to Southern Nevada are helping chip in $750 million in hotel room taxes to help build a $1.9 billion dollar NFL-ready stadium for the Oakland Raiders by 2020, but the question as to where the rest of the money is coming from is a little more complicated.

Ever since casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his pledged $650 million investment pulled out of the stadium deal in January, questions have been raised as to how stadium backers finance and pay back the $1.1 billion required to finish building the facility. Although Bank of America agreed in March to loan the team the required $650 million, the loan details themselves have been largely kept out of public view.

While NFL teams (including the Raiders) rarely divulge internal financial information, members of the Las Vegas Stadium Authority — the quasi-governmental board overseeing construction and management of the future stadium — received slightly more insight on Thursday into the somewhat complex financing structure proposed for the stadium.

Bank of America executive Elliott McCabe, who specializes in sports financing, gave members of the panel an overview of the expected financial setup on the stadium and why the banking giant decided to back the project, which is scheduled to finish construction sometime in July 2020.

“From a financing point of view, it’s very comparable to other financing we’ve done in terms of size, scope and scale,” McCabe said of the stadium project. “And so that provides us with comfort of conviction in funding this project.”

While the public is allowed little insight into the financing deal itself, McCabe spent some time going over the broad contours of the deal, and how the construction financing will likely play out over the next three years.

Shell companies

Bank of America’s planned $600 million loan to help construct the stadium won’t come in a simple check between the bank and the stadium authority — rather, the bank plans to set up an independent finance company in Delaware to be the primary borrower for loans made to the stadium company.

Jeremy Aguero, an economic analyst and consultant on the stadium project, said the NFL required the third-party arrangement and that Delaware offered certain advantages, including bankruptcy protections.

Regardless, the number of yet-to-be-formed companies serving as pass-through entities can be confusing — the finance company (backed by the bank) will provide loans to the stadium company (the entity charged with designing and constructing the facility itself), while the building itself will be owned by the stadium authority.

G-4 loans

The team is banking on being approved for the full $200 million available under the NFL’s G-4 loan program. The loan system, which was established by the league following collective bargaining negotiations in 2011, allows teams in public-private partnerships to apply for up to $200 million in loans for new stadium construction, and a typically minimal interest rate — slightly more than 2 percent.

If approved by the league, the loan would be repaid over a 15-year period derived from premium seating revenue. At least 10 NFL teams have taken advantage of the loan program since 2011, with the Atlanta Falcons, Los Angeles Rams, Minnesota Vikings and San Francisco 49ers all receiving the maximum $200 million from the NFL.

“It’s a program that has been utilized in most if not all new stadiums that have been built in the NFL,” McCabe said.

McCabe said that the NFL is the only U.S. based professional sports league to offer such a loan program, in large part because of the league’s established policies on revenue sharing between teams.

PSLs

A major portion of the Raiders’ contribution to the stadium funding is expected to come via personal seat license (PSL) sales, a hefty fee required of fans for the right to purchase season tickets.

The team estimates it will bring in $250 million through PSL sales, and began offering $100 deposits for the licenses in April. The Raiders say they’ve collected more than 50,400 deposits for the licenses, with roughly 43 percent coming from Nevada and 29 percent from California.

McCabe called the expected revenue from the PSLs “modest,” and said that other recent stadium projects relied on much rosier projections of revenues from the licenses.

Badain also confirmed during the meeting that the average cost of a PSL would be roughly $4,000 per seat, though the actual amount will vary widely based on where the seat is located.

As required by law, the stadium authority is required to approve a document indicating its belief that the stadium developers have shown “adequate financial security” to successfully carry out construction. That document will likely be approved during the board’s September meeting.