Roger Goodell OK with Raiders-Las Vegas talks

[Prime Time]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...ion-if-las-vegas-stadium-funding-is-approved/

Mark Davis will commit to pursuit of relocation if Las Vegas stadium funding is approved
Posted by Mike Florio on April 26, 2016

AP

If one specific thing happens in Vegas, the Raiders could be staying in Vegas.

According to Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News, owner Mark Davis plans to make a commitment on Thursday to pursue relocation to Las Vegas if financing for the proposed $1.3 billion stadium is approved. Roughly two-thirds of the funds would come from taxes imposed on tourists.

For Davis to be something more than a tourist, he’ll still need approval of at least 23 of his 31 business partners. As Bonsignore notes, the Charger, Rams, Texans, and Cowboys have strong reasons to support a Vegas move for the Raiders, since it would take them out of the running for L.A. or San Antonio. Under that reasoning, the 49ers likely would support the move, too, since a departure of the Raiders would give the entirety of the Bay Area market to the team that now plays in Santa Clara.

Davis would still need at least 18 other teams to agree, a prospect that could be undermined by a gambling angle the NFL has worked so hard over the years to avoid. Still, the league’s attitude about Las Vegas has abruptly changed; whether that’s simply aimed at squeezing Oakland into working out a stadium deal remains to be seen.

If Oakland won’t budge, a Vegas move for the Raiders could be the latest example of the league taking what it can get, where it can get it. With few cities willing to fork over significant public money to build a stadium, a commitment by Las Vegas to foist 66 cents of every dollar onto folks who will be even more inclined to visit town if the Raiders play there is precisely the kind of thing that can get the NFL to look the other way on a topic as to which, frankly, the NFL has been looking the other way for years, in most contexts.

 

[Leuzer]

With their rich history of cheating, the Raiders would fit perfectly in Vegas. Plus, it would put Nevada on the NFL map and leave California with 3 teams instead of 4. I wouldn't mind them staying or going as long as they don't move to LA.

 

[bluecoconuts]

Vegas is in position to land both an NFL and an NHL team pretty soon. NHL should be doing an expansion draft pretty soon and they're already building the arena. Have to think the NFL preferred outcome would be the Raiders move to Vegas, and the Chargers make San Diego work.

 

[thirteen28]

I only care about two things related to this:

1 - the Chargers stay in San Diego
2 - the Raiders play somewhere else besides LA

 

[Dodgersrf]

Raiders + Sin City = Perfect Match

 

[99Balloons]

I prefer the Raiders either stay in Oakland or move somewhere else. Likewise, I prefer the Chargers stay in San Diego.

That way, the Los Angeles Rams is exclusively in L.A. only and the Rams history and traditions won't have to be shared with another team in L.A.

L.A. is solely Rams Nation and Rams territory.

 

[TexasRam]

Aldon Smith be like...

 

[den-the-coach]

I only care about two things related to this:

1 - the Chargers stay in San Diego
2 - the Raiders play somewhere else besides LA

This^

 

[den-the-coach]

 

[OldSchool]

Rebrand to the Sin City Slayers!

 

[Orchid]

Good move for Davis and the NFL,. Who will come around because of the potential money is up there with LA. So much better than London.

 

[RamsSince1969]

That's a long day trip oldschool........it's over 500 miles round trip and part of it will be fighting stadium traffic and LA traffic..........but I'd bet there are pretty cheap bus services available.

Bullet Train in the works from LA to Vegas! Now that would work. When the Rams play in Vegas, we all from So. Cal take the Ramtrack to the away game.

 

[RamsSince1969]

A team in Las Vegas, would take from LA area like some have said (Raider's fans anyway), but would it make a 2nd team in LA less feasible? I actually think Vegas is a good fit for the Raiders, especially if it's being paid for by others

I LOVE the Las Vegas Raiders! That swashbuckling team and crazy Vegas were made for each other. Can you imagine the advertising dollars? No Los Angeles Raiders. I want the Rams to have L.A. all to themselves. Las Vegas Raiders is music to my ears. San Diego Chargers also has a beautiful ring to it.

 

[Prime Time]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...er-pledges-500-million-for-las-vegas-stadium/

Raiders owner pledges $500 million for Las Vegas stadium
Posted by Darin Gantt on April 28, 2016

Getty Images

Mark Davis is probably getting comped on this trip to Las Vegas, because he’s willing to drop half a billion dollars there.

Via Scott Bair of CSNBayArea.com, the Raiders owner told the Southern Nevada Tourism and Infrastructure Committee meeting that he was ready to commit $500 million toward a stadium there to bring his team to the desert.

Davis also brought some rhetoric with him, saying Las Vegas: “would not just be getting a football team, they would be getting everyone who has worn the silver and black for the last 56 years.”

Of course, shaking the tree and waiting for the money to fall out isn’t the only problem for Davis, who would still need to convince 23 of his fellow owners to approve a move. But the reaction to Las Vegas has been more positive (or at least less negative) than it has been in the past.

 

[DaveFan'51]

Have to think the NFL preferred outcome would be the Raiders move to Vegas, and the Chargers make San Diego work.

I personally love the idea too! But mainly because I don't like the idea of the Rams sharing a Stadium!!

 

[Prime Time]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...y-in-oakland-vegas-will-turn-to-the-chargers/

If Raiders stay in Oakland, Vegas will turn to the Chargers
Posted by Michael David Smith on May 14, 2016

Getty Images

Officials in Las Vegas have talked to Raiders owner Mark Davis about attracting his team to the city. But if the Raiders stay in Oakland, Vegas won’t be done trying to get an NFL team.

Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman said on the Dan Patrick Show that she and her husband, former Mayor Oscar Goodman, have a long and close relationship with Chargers owner Alex Spanos and would love to work with Spanos on a move.

“My husband and I have had season tickets at the Chargers for the past 30-plus years and we would love that, and Alex Spanos already has some relationship with us here in the city — he’s been a developer for us in the ’70s and ’80s,” Goodman said. “I know they’re absolutely looking to move and that’s another place to go.”

The Chargers say they’re committed to finding a workable solution in San Diego, but if taxpayers won’t build them a new stadium, eventually they’re going to look elsewhere. That could mean sharing a stadium with the Rams in Los Angeles, but it could also mean moving to Las Vegas.

One way or another, Las Vegas wants an NFL team. And the NFL, despite its reluctance to have any connection to the gambling industry, seems to be warming up to the possibility — especially if the Nevada legislature is willing to put up $750 million of the stadium costs.

“Whether it’s the Chargers or Oakland,” she said, “that would really be exciting.”

 

[LesBaker]

The Chargers say they’re committed to finding a workable solution in San Diego, but if taxpayers won’t build them a new stadium, eventually they’re going to look elsewhere. That could mean sharing a stadium with the Rams in Los Angeles, but it could also mean moving to Las Vegas.

So Vegas is the new leverage.........

I think San Antonio will be next after someone moves to Vegas. Though Orlando could be in the mix too.

 

[Prime Time]

http://deadspin.com/let-s-move-the-raiders-to-vegas-1776248198

Let’s Move The Raiders To Vegas
Drew Magary

Photo via Getty

By now we’re all so used to NFL relocation talk that the first impulse is to ignore all the recent reports that Oakland Raiders owner and embarrassing ’70s yearbook photo Mark Davis is toying with the idea of moving the team toLas Vegas. Remember, it took decades for the NFL to finally sack up and move a team back to Los Angeles, and that was a city that Roger Goodell actually liked. We are, in all likelihood, only at the beginning of a slow, annoying bargaining process.

Some background first: the Raiders are currently on a one-year lease at their home stadium, which is a prison. Davis, who has publicly insisted he’s not a billionaire (poor guy!), has pledged to kick in half a billion for a new domed stadium along the Strip, with the NFL loaning him $200 million of that $500 million. The remaining $900 million would be paid for by a “mix” of public funding and private investing from the Las Vegas Sands group, which is owned and operated by Illumnati chairman Sheldon Adelson.

Cuddly little teddy bear that he is, Adelson has already used his newly-acquired hometown paper to quash reports of the stadium’s potential costs. Could this be because taxpayer money will represent the majority of that so-called funding “mix”? GEE I DON’T KNOW YOU GUYS.

There are, of course, a great many reasons why the NFL doesn’t want a team in Las Vegas. It’s only the 40th-largest TV market in the country. It’s only just begun to recover from a devastating real estate market crash. And, above all else, keeping a team out of Las Vegas allows the NFL to keep up the hilarious façade of publicly distancing themselves from sports gambling while simultaneously thriving off of it.

For that reason alone, Goodell is probably content to let the Raiders—arguably the least popular franchise among all owners, given the Davis family’s legal history—languish without a new stadium in Oakland while the Chargers figure out if they can bleed San Diego dry for a new joint. If the Chargers succeed, then the Raiders can just move back to Los Angeles, where their dormant fanbase is probably still greater than the now-reactivated Rams fanbase.

And if the Chargers fail and have to accept their fate as Stan Kreonke’s boarders, THEN Vegas will be considered, and that will likely only be as a new leveraging option because L.A. is finally off the table. The only reason to believe Vegas has any shot of luring the Raiders is this:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Jerry Jones is in favor of the idea of an NFL team in Las Vegas. He says the entertainment aspect outweighs gambling concerns</p>&mdash; Clarence Hill

That’s Cowboys beat writer Clarence Hill tweeting about how the Double J is ready to throw his support behind the Vegas Raiders. And while Jerry Jones is old and out of his mind, he was essentially the kingmaker behind the Rams’ move. A nutcase who owns the most valuable franchise in pro football is a powerful nutcase indeed. For all of Roger Goodell’s endless chest-puffing, his strings are always readily available for Jones to pull.

Thanks to Jones, the chances of the Raiders actually moving to Nevada just went from zero to .000001%. The city has a legitimate shot now. And while this site has long been dedicated to shitting on owners and pooh-poohing stadium boondoggles, let me state here that I unequivocally support the idea of the Las Vegas Raiders. People, I want this to happen so badly I can taste it. Tastes like a $5 ribeye. Here are some obvious reasons why this should happen:

1. It’s the perfect alliance of depressing team and depressing city.
   
2. Raiders fans are the kind of people who are likely to spend every weekend in Las Vegas anyway. They’re not abandoning the franchise over this. Darth Raider yearns for the chance to wake up hung over in a dumpster outside Cheetahs.
   
3. Someone is bound to get screwed over in this process, and if that’s the case, well, the best people to screw over are Vegas tourists forced to pay a 3% hotel room tax. I’ve been to Vegas. I’ve been a tourist there. No group of people is more deserving of the loss.
   
4. The Raiders have always been the NFL’s poseur outlaw franchise. Moving to a town founded by mobsters would only strengthen the delusion.

But above all else, Las Vegas has earned the right to have a pro sports team. Baseball has flirted with Vegas. Hockey has flirted with Vegas. For all that Vegas has given to the sporting world—all the seediness, and parlays, and bros in visors, and Mandalay Bay sports books—it’s time for payback. I’m sick of leagues benefitting from Vegas’ licentiousness while treating it with sniffing disdain.

Put the Raiders in Vegas, rip that city off, and watch as they mirror the rest of the town: glamorous from afar … desperate up close. Packed with ugly rich people. They’ll be snorting rails by a crumbling motel pool within a week. The Raiders have always been a piss-poor collection of vagabonds.

Mercenaries. They are Nevada in miniature. Las Vegas has waited its whole life for this team. And the Raiders have always belonged here; they just never realized it. It’s time, NFL. It’s time to let them go home. Make the Vegas Raiders happen.

 

[wmc540]

My coworker went to Las Vegas this past weekend and he showed me a picture of a private jet at the airport with a Chargers logo on it. Hmmm