The Raiders weren’t able to get in on the sweet “move to Los Angeles” action, but that hasn’t stopped owner Mark Davis from moving on to the next available non-Oakland option: Las Vegas.
In the midst of a legislative push for stadium approval in Vegas, Mark Davis gave a speech that sounded much more “this is happening” than “we hope this happens.”
Via Business Insider:
“I would like to thank Governor Sandoval, the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee, and the members of the Nevada Legislature on this historic day, ” said Raiders owner Mark Davis. “All parties have worked extremely hard to develop and approve this tremendous stadium project that will serve as a proud new home for the entire Raider Nation.”
The bill passed by the assembly to approve the new stadium now needs to go back to the state senate to iron out the differences with the bill passed there. At this point, that appears to be a formality.
Now, there’s certainly the possibility that Davis is posturing. After all the entire “threaten to move the team” process is, to some degree, posturing. But with actual legislation in the works, Davis seems to be trying to project the air of a foregone conclusion.
But his wording has another implication as well, after all; the league still has to vote on any proposed move, and he has to grease that particular wheel.
Davis will need 23 of the other 31 owners to approve the move and at this point it is unclear how they will vote. On the surface there appears to be a division between the old-school owners who may still view Vegas as a place to be avoided, such as the Mara family (New York Giants) and the Rooney family (Pittsburgh Steelers), and some of the newer, more revenue-conscious owners, such as Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys).
There’s nothing like a good league ownership split.
Oh, hey, there’s Oakland’s fans too! I’m sure everyone’s taking their thoughts and feelings into account as well, right?
Right?
