Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk spoke with a source with knowledge of the inner workings of the process who mentioned that a decision regarding the Raiders possibly relocating to Las Vegas is expected to come in the next six to nine months.
Florio mentions that time will be of the essence, considering that Las Vegas would need to get the project going they’re to have a stadium ready for the Raiders.
While NFL owners will meet next week in Houston, Florio says that they won’t vote on a possible move for the Raiders. According to Florio, there is expected to be some resistance towards relocating the franchise, due to the prevalence of gambling in Las Vegas and the relative size of the market.
Even so, Florio says that the prediction right now is that the Raiders have a 75-percent of gaining approval to move to Las Vegas.
Over the weekend, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reported that Raiders owner Mark Davis faces “significant obstacles and opposition” to relocating the franchise to Las Vegas, despite the recent news that Nevada has approved $750 million in public funding for a stadium.
La Canfora says that many prominent owners would prefer to see the Raiders stay in downtown Oakland than move to Las Vegas and the NFL reportedly continues to work behind the scenes to find a home for the Raiders in the Bay Area.
In order to move the team to Las Vegas, Davis would need 24 votes from ownership. However, La Canfora mentions that it’s “far from certain” Davis would get the support he would need to make such a move right now.
According to La Canfora, NFL executives are reluctant and unwilling to give up on having another team located in the booming Bay Area where there is a better economy and larger television market.
Interestingly enough, La Canfora adds that some owners believe the best case scenario for the Raiders would be for them to have new ownership.
We’ll have more regarding the Raiders and a potential Las Vegas stadium as the news is available.
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