The domed stadium would cost an estimated $1.4 billion and would seat about 65,000 fans. Sources in Oakland said the team and local officials put off negotiations on a long-term stadium deal while the lease agreement was being discussed. However, $750 million will still be needed to complete the project.
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The team issued the following statement not long after the meeting on Thursday morning.
Davis said other sites besides a 42-acre spot owned by UNLV on Tropicana Avenue, across from McCarran International Airport, are being looked at in the search. “That’s what Las Vegas is going to provide us and it’s going to be a great marriage”. It still has to be approved officially by the Nevada state legislature, but it appears that’s all that is standing in the way. They don’t meet again until February.
The Raiders, along with the Rams and Chargers, applied earlier this year to return to Los Angeles. If that happens and the funding passes, then this thing could move quickly.
The Raiders, like baseball’s Oakland A’s, play in the antiquated Oakland Coliseum and have been looking to move into nicer digs either inside or outside of the Bay Area.
On Thursday, Davis said that under the lease agreement, his team could practice and play in Oakland while the Las Vegas stadium is being built.
Basically, even if everything goes perfectly according to plan for Vegas, the Raiders wouldn’t be playing there until 2019.
In recent weeks, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has softened the league’s stance on Vegas.
Goodell was asked about a possible Raiders move to Vegas while meeting with reporters at the NFL Draft on Wednesday. If nothing else, the Rams going to Los Angeles required them to come up with another city to use as leverage in existing stadium negotiations.
The group also is asking to create the Clark County Stadium Authority, similar to the authority that oversees the Oakland Coliseum and Oracle Arena. “I would say that we would make them an offer they can’t refuse”. “We’ll fight for it”. While approval of a San Diego stadium initiative is a necessary first step to get the ball rolling in San Diego, it’s not a guarantee that a stadium will be built in San Diego.
The entire process could take three years to be completed but the NFL’s view of Las Vegas and the city’s legal sports betting might pose a problem for the plan.
Davis noted the Raiders played in Las Vegas in an exhibition in 1964 that was the only game by future National Football League teams in the city.
As for the Raiders, they weren’t tipping their hand on where they might end up.
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But a group of Vegas backers – among them, apparently, David Beckham – are hoping to build a $1.4 billion stadium for the Raiders, and Davis proved today that he’s all-in by flashing his $500 mil before the Las Vegas Tourism Commission. What’s clear to me is that the Raiders see Oakland as their third option, at least under the City of Oakland’s current political appetite, and that their best bet is to secure a move somewhere whether that’s Las Vegas or Los Angeles.
