KVIG Informative

Steve Hill chairs the public board overseeing Nevada’s $380 million stadium subsidy for the Athletics. He’s also the tourism authority chief whose staff worked to help secure that same subsidy — and he says there’s no conflict.

Steve Hill serves simultaneously as chairman of the Las Vegas Stadium Authority, the public board responsible for overseeing the Athletics’ domed stadium project, and as president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, according to the Stadium Authority’s own board records.

At a 2023 Stadium Authority board meeting, in response to a question from board member Jan Jones Blackhurst, Hill stated on the record that he saw no conflict of interest in having administrative work for the project done by the LVCVA, explaining that the LVCVA’s role is to advance tourism within the community. Hill confirmed that LVCVA staff assisted the Athletics through the legislative process that secured the stadium subsidy, and that the work was done without compensation from the team.

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The arrangement has required Hill to abstain from votes directly. At the Stadium Authority’s Sept. 2, 2026 board meeting, Hill stated he would abstain from voting on an agenda item due to a conflict of interest arising from his dual roles as an LVCVA employee and chairman of the Stadium Authority Board, according to the board’s own posted meeting minutes.

The Nevada Legislature approved up to $380 million in public funding toward the stadium’s construction through Senate Bill 1 in 2023. The Stadium Authority Board itself was created by that same legislation to own and oversee both the NFL and MLB stadium projects on the public’s behalf.

Hill’s dual role means the same person effectively sits on both sides of the project: leading the agency whose staff helped secure the public subsidy from the Legislature, and chairing the public board now responsible for holding the team accountable for how that subsidy gets used.

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Hill noted during the 2023 meeting that Applied Analysis, a separate firm involved in the legislative process, was compensated directly by the Athletics and would continue to be — a distinction he offered as part of explaining why shifting administrative Stadium Authority work to the LVCVA felt appropriate.

A board created specifically to provide independent public oversight of a $380 million taxpayer commitment is chaired by the same official whose own agency helped secure that commitment in the first place. Hill has said publicly there’s no conflict. The board’s own minutes show he still has to abstain from votes because of one.