Sands Arena Opening Late 2018 or Early 2019

Las Vegas Sands reported their second quarter 2016 earnings earlier this afternoon.

As usual most of the earnings conference call centered on the company's primary casino operations in Macau and Singapore, but there was one tidbit about Las Vegas:

The Sands music arena which will be built with Madison Square Garden will begin construction in early 2017.

The arena located behind Venetian and Palazzo will take 18 to 24 months to build, which means the opening date will be Late 2018 or early 2019.

I suppose that timeline is perfectly reasonable for a new arena to be constructed, but 2019 seems like a long way off. I was looking forward to the Sands arena and T-Mobile Arena squaring off and competing for top musical acts, but I guess we'll have to wait a few years.