The Raiders will soon file relocation papers to move from Oakland to Las Vegas, according to a report on the NFL’s official website.
The bid to relocate in the shifting landscape of the NFL would require 24 votes from the league’s owners, three-quarters of the NFL’s 32 clubs, to win approval in a vote this spring.
The prospect of a Raiders move comes on the heels of the Chargers’ relocation from San Diego to Los Angeles to ultimately share a new stadium there with the Rams, who won approval to move back to the west coast from St. Louis.
The decision by the Raiders to pursue a shift to Las Vegas came after a lack of progress over finding a viable stadium proposal with the city of Oakland, the report said.
If approved, the Raiders would become the second major professional sports franchise to be based in the US gambling capital following the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, who will begin playing in the 2017-18 NHL season.
The Raiders have been weighing up two potential plans for a new stadium in Las Vegas.
When the Raiders officially file, the league and its owners will begin a process which is expected to take four to six weeks, with committees set up to analyze the move.
A vote by the owners could come during the late-March league meetings in Arizona or a special league meeting could be called.
Raiders owner Mark Davis has said publicly that even if the team moves, he plans on the team playing for the next couple of seasons in Oakland while a new stadium is built.
andrew
Guest
Instead of beer cans raining down from the stands like Lang Park, it will be half yard glasses of frozen margaritas... should be interesting.. You feel sorry for any fan base whose team move but at the end of the day, the stadium issue for the Raiders has been there for a long long time. The only thing that has made it viable is being dual purpose but the Coliseum doesn't work as an NFL Stadium. That said if Davis wanted to keep the team in Oakland, surely they could have played out of Levi - 50 minutes down the road. I think Oakland fans would have copped that. But if he thinks there is money to be made in Vegas, and there probably is, then good luck to him.
Mushi
Guest
I do find it a bit trite that the NFL "needs" cities to build stadiums where the largest beneficiary is the NFL.
Mushi
Guest
My only surface concern on that is the attendance isn't as big a driver as presold suites. But they could be selling the suites to the casino operators which then opens the conflict of interest thing but if Goodell didn't care about killing people he won't care about that.
GWSINGAPORE
Guest
Oakland has higher priorities for government spending (health and education) than a sports stadium used 10 times per year. Let them go!
kingcowboy
Guest
A lot of Raiders fans are still in L.A and vegas is only a couple of hours from L.A. Raiders had no future in Oakland as the city wasn't willing to stump up any public money and Mark Davis couldn't afford to contribute anything.
no one in particular
Roar Guru
Raiders will dwarf the Knights. Hockey is only really big in the northeast and Big 10 country.
no one in particular
Roar Guru
It's not about immediate population, but surrounding markets. SF and Oakland dont' just share the city, but also northern California, most of Nevada and the southern half of Oregon. Denver has Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, Minnesota goes into North and South Dakota. The thing that Las Vegas has that Oakland doesn't is a city willing to build a shiny new stadium for them. However, it's strange. Raiders fans say they won't follow the team to Las Vegas. Chargers fans wont' follow the team to LA, and LA fans arent' interested in them. LA has a large Raider fanbase. They should have gone to LA, and the Chargers to Vegas. Vegas also gets a lot of tourists, inparticular from cities that don't have an NFL team. This will help to put backsides on seats
Mushi
Guest
But when people think market size they typically look at metro area (or TV markets for entertainment). In that sense Oakland shares a top 10 market with SF vs vegas' 40 something. I don't think the Oakland exit is necessarily an issue (as the market will be covered by niners) but they'd prefer a top 30 TV market
kingcowboy
Guest
I think you will find Vegas has a larger population then Oakland and is on the fastest growing cities in the U.S
Simon G
Guest
I would assume that a large proportion of crowds will be the visiting teams fans traveling to Vegas for a weekend of footy and gambling. Sounds like a great weekend to me! -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.
Riley Pettigrew
Roar Guru
This will be interesting to see how the Raiders compete with the Golden Knights for such a small market. I'm looking forward to seeing whether Vegas can be captured by pro sports, we'll have to wait and see.