Written by Judy Battista at NFL.com
With a vote of NFL owners slated for Monday at the Annual League Meeting, the Oakland Raiders are expected to receive approval to relocate to a stadium to be built in Las Vegas.
The potential move by the Raiders is expected to dominate the meeting of owners, coaches and general managers, which begins Sunday in Phoenix. If 24 of the 32 clubs agree — they almost certainly will, although reluctantly — the Raiders will play two more years, the 2017 and 2018 seasons, in Oakland before packing up. They would have to play an additional season in an interim stadium — the league has already looked into which adjustments would be needed to make the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’s stadium a viable host for NFL games — before the new stadium is completed.
“I think in the end there will be a vote and I think it will pass,” one team owner said. “I haven’t had people lobbying me, so I don’t know if [opposition] is out there, but I don’t see it.”
There are still stumbling blocks that could emerge that would force a vote to be delayed until the Spring League Meeting in May. The biggest potential one: the setting of the relocation fee for the Raiders, which two owners indicated could be a source of contention for some owners. The Rams and Chargers must pay between $550 million and $650 million, depending on financing, for their moves to Los Angeles. Because the Las Vegas market is much smaller and would not boost the valuation of a franchise as much as a move to Los Angeles would, it is expected that the Raiders would pay considerably less — perhaps half as much. If the vote goes ahead as scheduled Monday, owners could approve the move, contingent on the final setting of the fee at a later date.
Owners and the league had hoped the Raiders would find a way to formulate a stadium deal in Oakland, a much bigger and more lucrative market than Las Vegas. But Raiders owner Mark Davis has had his sights set on Las Vegas for at least one year, starting soon after the Raiders, in a joint effort with the Chargers, lost out in a bid to build a stadium in Los Angeles. And early-stage proposals by Oakland civic leaders and a third-party investment group, which included Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott, were viewed dimly by the league. The idea of having the league build a stadium for the Raiders in Oakland on land the city would lease to the team similarly stalled. Now, say three people familiar with the owners’ thinking, owners are resigned to the idea that no viable plan from Oakland is coming anytime soon, so they will reluctantly support the move.
“The complete lack of any realistic alternative in Oakland is just as big a factor, because nobody really wants to see them move — you’d really prefer to see them stay in Oakland,” a second team owner said. “It just hasn’t worked. I don’t think there is much, if any, opposition.”
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