Raiders Close To Filing For Relocation To Las Vegas
The San Diego Chargers are packing up and joining the Rams in Los Angeles and the Raiders could soon be on the move as well.
NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reported on Saturday that the Oakland Raiders intend on filing paperwork with the league in the coming days announcing their intentions to move to Las Vegas.
In order for the move to happen, the Raiders would need 24 votes from the league. According to Rapoport if the Raiders are given the go ahead to make the jump east, they would still play the next two seasons in Oakland prior to relocating to Las Vegas for the 2020 season.
Roger Goodell has stated the timetable the Raiders have to file their intentions.
“If the Raiders decide that they can’t make it work in Oakland and they decide that they want to file for relocation, then their window is from when they get eliminated from the playoffs to Feb. 15,” Goodell said.
Oakland has made an effort to keep the team from relocating to Las Vegas by tentatively approving a $1.3 billion plan for a new stadium in Oakland.
The stadium effort is headed by NFL Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott. Lott’s stadium plan would use $350 million in public funding, $400 million from his group, and $500 million from the Raiders and NFL.
Meanwhile, Raiders owner Mark Davis has received approval from the city of Las Vegas to construct a $1.9 billion stadium, with assistance in funding coming from billionaire Sheldon Adelson.
Even though Adelson doesn’t seem to be on the same page as the Raiders according to SFGate, executives with the team have informed the Las Vegas Stadium Authority the financing for the stadium has been secured.
Once the paperwork is filed, a meeting, presumably in late March during the league meetings in Arizona would be when the owners would vote on the move.
The Raiders have presented their plan to the owners, who seem optimistic about the move happening.
Oakland is the only city currently in professional sports to house two different teams from two different sports in one venue. The Raiders and Oakland Athletics share the 50-year-old Oakland-Almeda Coliseum.
Assuming the pieces all come together, the Raiders would still spend the next two years in Oakland and there are questions surrounding the faithfulness of the fan base in Oakland. Both the Rams and Chargers made immediate exits following their announcements so it will be interesting to see how the fan support is in Oakland.
If Oakland makes the move to Las Vegas, it would be the third team to announce a move in the last year.
The Chargers announced their move to Los Angeles last week and the Rams made the move to Los Angeles in January of 2016. The Rams and Chargers will eventually share a $2.6 billion stadium in Inglewood.
The stadium will sit on a 298-acre plot of land Kroenke is developing as part of sports and entertainment district and the FAA recently approved the project after concerns about it interfering with radar signals from the nearby airport.
Though, many in the city aren’t all that thrilled with the Chargers coming to Los Angeles. The new Chargers logo is under the most scrutinization as it resembles closely to their soon to be Los Angeles counterparts the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Take a look.
The new logo from the now-Los Angeles @Chargers pic.twitter.com/rm4NorXtOA
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 12, 2017
The logo was booed mercilessly at the Los Angeles Lakers-Clippers game this past week when shown on the jumbotron. It’s too early to tell if the logo will remain or not but I would have to imagine a change coming in the near future because that’s just too similar.
[Feature Image by Donald Miralle/Getty Images]
