LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — The Las Vegas Raiders have pledged a record-breaking $25 million donation to help fund the construction of Nevada’s first-ever standalone children’s hospital, team officials announced Monday.
The contribution marks the largest single donation in the Raiders franchise’s history and stands as one of the largest philanthropic gifts ever given by an NFL organization.
“We promised that Las Vegas and the entire state of Nevada would be getting more than a football team—that you’d be getting an army on and off the field,” said Raiders owner Mark Davis, who personally contributed $5 million to the pledge.
The overall $25 million commitment includes $10 million directly from the Raiders organization, with the remaining $15 million split equally among Davis and team partners Egon Durbin and Michael Meldman.
The donation kicks off a capital campaign for a projected 1 million-square-foot pediatric medical campus spearheaded by Intermountain Health. The hospital will feature approximately 180 beds and a comprehensive outpatient care clinic and is estimated to cost $1 billion.
Las Vegas is currently the largest metropolitan area in the United States without a dedicated standalone children’s hospital. Because of the gap in local pediatric specialty care, roughly 2,000 Southern Nevada children are sent out of state annually for overnight medical treatments. Many are flown to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Samantha Delk, whose son Colston underwent years of chemotherapy and two bone marrow transplants, shared her family’s experience of being separated and forced to live six hours away from home for two years.
“It’s not fair that we live in a community that didn’t have something to support the only thing in life that I wanted,” Delk said, adding that having a local facility will be “life-changing” for future patients.
Raiders President Sandra Douglas Morgan emphasized that pediatric care access is a community right. “Access to high-quality healthcare should never depend on where a child lives,” she said.
Bill Hornbuckle, co-chair of the Nevada Campaign for Kids and CEO of MGM Resorts, recalled having to rush his own children to the airport during past medical emergencies. “What now happens here needs to stay here, and the healthcare of our children needs to stay here,” Hornbuckle said.
Intermountain Health plans to break ground on the facility this fall, with construction estimated to take four years. The hospital is projected to open its doors to patients in 2030.
