Latest On Raiders, Las Vegas

As Peter King of TheMMQB.com reported yesterday, the Raiders’ potential relocation to Las Vegas was not scheduled to be on the agenda at the owners’ meetings today. Still, it was practically inevitable that the subject would get brought up, with reporters questioning the league’s 32 owners on the viability of such a move. Let’s take a look at the latest, with reports and comments from several different sources…

  • While Raiders owner Mark Davis allowed that the issue of his club moving was not on the docket today, he did say that he hasn’t received any pushback as of yet. “I haven’t heard no,” said Davis, according to ESPN.com.
  • Appearing later on NFL Network, Davis claimed that Las Vegas would be act as a solid middle ground for all parties involved. “The Raider fan in Northern California get upset a little bit when we talk about going to Los Angeles, and the L.A. fans get a little ticked off at the fans in Northern California, so it seems like Las Vegas is a neutral site that everybody’s kind of bought into,” said Davis, per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “It will unite the Raider nation more than divide it.”
  • Davis confirmed that he is now longer attempting to move the Raiders to Los Angeles, per the ESPN report, as he told those in Las Vegas that he would not use the city as a bargaining chip in order to find a stadium elsewhere. “[Los Angeles] doesn’t have anything to do with where my train of thought is right now,” Davis said. “If Las Vegas comes through, we’re going to Las Vegas.”
  • Oakland isn’t completely out of the picture, according to Davis, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said he spoke with Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf last night, and hopes that the two sides can reach a “combined solution,” reports Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (Twitter link). Goodell, for his part, called the Raiders-to-Vegas “premature” and “pure speculation,” as Steve Reed of the Associated Press tweets.
  • Gambling isn’t the primary concern for owners who might be against the Raiders moving to Las Vegas, according to Cole (video link). Rather, owners have some worries about the city’s ability to finance a new stadium, per Cole.
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