On Monday March 27, the N.F.L. team owners met in Phoenix, Arizona where they voted on if the Oakland Raiders should move to Las Vegas, Nevada. The outcome was an unexpected landslide of a 31-1 vote in favor of the decision to move the Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas. Miami Dolphins owner, Stephen Ross, was the only owner to vote against the move saying that he didn’t think that all options had been fully evaluated for the Raiders to stay. “My position today was that we as owners and as a League owe it to the fans to do everything we can to stay in the communities that have supported us until all options have been exhausted,” said Ross.
The Raiders had originally proposed this idea in January of 2017, and it immediately had a negative outroar amongst local fans. This being the second time that they have left the city of Oakland, it will make them the first team in history to leave “their city”, comeback, and then leave again.
Protest and many other public addresses have been made in hopes to keep the Raiders in Oakland. Even the Mayor of the city, Libby Schaaf, made a final plea of desperation hoping to keep the team. “The Raider nation is the last of the blue-collar, salt-of-the-earth fan bases, and it absolutely breaks my heart to lose this team,” she said. The Raiders are known for their loyal, passionate and hard nosed fan base. It is very likely that they will lose out on home field advantage now that they will be playing in Las Vegas where there will be predominantly tourists filling the stands.
The team is expected to move into a nearly $2 billion stadium in 2020 when their lease is expired on their current stadium. The league will be giving $750 million to the team and they also will be getting a $650 million loan from Bank of America. The rest of the money is expected to come from league naming rights and other personal endorsements.
