The Raiders are still looking at all the options they can for a new stadium, even if that means leaving Oakland and maybe even California all together. The latest chapter in this seemingly never ending saga is the entrance of Las Vegas, Nevada into the mix. Thanks to a leaked email, we now know that Mark Davis is meeting with Billionaire casino magnate and Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson.
The Las Vegas Sands owns two major casinos in Las Vegas, the Venetian and the Palazzo. They also own other casinos that operate in Macau, Singapore and Pennsylvania along with many other massive projects under their belt. Now their Chairman Sheldon Adelson wants to build a $1 Billion dollar football stadium across from the McCarran International Airport on a currently vacant 42 acre chunk of land near the corner of Tropicana Ave and Koval Ln.
The stadium would be a 65,000 seat Dome facility that would be a partnership between the public and private investors. It would definitely take some getting used to having the Raiders be an indoor team but considering the spectacle that is Vegas it would be interesting. With the Sands Corp's support in this endeavor it could very well become a reality considering the amount of money and connections that Adelson and the Sands have in the Vegas area.
These plans are actually being put in place as a new home for the UNLV football team to play in so that they don't have to play 9 miles outside of the city, thus permanently changing the atmosphere at their football games. The thing is, a billion dollar stadium would make far more sense for an NFL team to call it's home too along with that UNLV team.
It just so happens, a little Silver and Black football team in Northern California needs a new stadium to call their own and their image just so happens to fit perfectly within the Sin City of America. Las Vegas is already home to several Raiders booster clubs and the renegade image that Al Davis manifested over his era of ownership is the same mentality that the city of Las Vegas has in general.
Before anybody gets too excited at the thought of the Sin City Raiders taking over the National Football League, it must be pointed out that the Raiders are most likely just using this as more leverage against the City of Oakland. Las Vegas may be on the verge of getting an NHL team finally, but there is a reason that no professional sports team has decided to make Vegas their home as of yet. Gambling.
The NFL has notoriously been against the idea of adding a Vegas football team due to the legality of gambling in Nevada. There is a conflict of interest there that the NFL (and MLB for that matter) like to pretend matters to them. Despite the fact that they obviously cater to the gambling industry behind the scenes, outwardly they claim that the ease of access to gambling makes their city not an ideal option for them.
What it does is give the Raiders another location to tout in front of the Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf as another City that is willing to bend over backwards to accommodate the Raiders and bring one of just 32 NFL franchises to their town. Whether this probably ploy will work is anybody's guess but so far the City of Oakland has called all of the Raiders relocation bluffs successfully.
At least that must be how they feel, even though the Raiders were definitely not bluffing in their attempt to move to Los Angeles as much as just losing in the race to get there. Still, that is what Oakland bet on and won. Can Oakland keep getting lucky on these bets is anybody's guess, maybe Las Vegas has a line on it?
Loading comments...