Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reports that the NFL continues to maintain “strong support” for keeping the Raiders in Oakland and plan to outline the merits of keeping the team in their current market at the upcoming meeting in Dallas.
Raiders owner Mark Davis is clearly focused on moving the team to Las Vegas. However, La Canfora says that he will face opposition from other owners.
In the end, Davis will need to convince 23 other owners in order to relocate the team. Some owners have come out in support of the idea and have been impressed that Davis has managed to secure such as a sizable public contribution from the state of Nevada. However, La Canfora writes that NFL could cajole owners into supporting their position to keep the Raiders in Oakland, given that the Bay Area as a superior market to Las Vegas.
One problem is the simple fact that the city of Oakland doesn’t have a stadium deal yet that rivals the current Las Vegas deal. Sources tell La Canfora that the league could “slow play” a move to Vegas for the time being, even though Davis will likely file relocation papers next month and bring it to a vote as soon as possible.
La Canfora points out that the NFL could impact the situation depending on what they set as a relocation fee and whether they’ll grant G4 stadium funding, considering that the idea behind this funding is to help teams in their current markets upgrade their facilities.
Yesterday, Jason Cole of B/R reports that of the 15 owners on the NFL Finance and Stadium committees, at least two openly questioned the logic of the Raiders leaving Oakland for Las Vegas during their recent meeting.
Cole says that one owner was particularly negative about the deal between Davis and casino owner Sheldon Adelson, saying that Raiders should agree to not to local revenue sharing.
NFL staffers informed the two committees that Las Vegas marketing studies have showed that Vegas would have the lowest potential season ticket base of all NFL teams, according to Cole.
In regards to the plan being proposed by Oakland, Cole mentions that owners aren’t happy that the city is working with Fortress Investment Group, as FIG is not considered trustworthy.
In the end, Cole says the NFL expects to decide between “two bad situations” for the Raiders.
We’ll have more regarding the Raiders as the news is available.
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