If anything, he’s doubling down. Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft are two of the most prominent and trendsetting owners in the National Football League and with them in Mark Davis’ corner it will be hard for any owners who want to go against the Raiders’ potential move to gather enough support to stop it.
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Goodell said that the league believes in the Raiders’ current market, Oakland.
That said, the Raiders have hired experts to study the Las Vegas market to make sure the fan base is strong enough there to justify a move. If that doesn’t happen soon, there’s a good chance the Raiders will be moving to Vegas sometime in the near future. Davis said the Raiders are doing demographic research on Las Vegas’ viability in supporting a team. Las Vegas has a history of capitalizing on others’ misfortune.
Whether Davis’s fellow owners roll the dice on Vegas probably will have little to do with gambling and everything to do with the size of the markets at play.
The Raiders seem to be inching closer to a Vegas move. The Bay Area city has made it clear that it won’t be using public funds to build a stadium, even though the Raiders are offering up to $600 million to get a deal done. In late April, Davis met with officials in Las Vegas and pledged contribute $500 million toward a proposed $1.4 billion stadium. He said, “We want to do it right, so it’s not a real rushed thing”, The Commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell, said that talk about a possible Raiders move is “very premature”, adding that Davis hasn’t presented the league with any proposal. I think if Mark (Davis) can put together a deal up there, I think he’d rather stay there. We’re just living in a different world, technology-wise. It’s a great entertainment environment, and I think that far overshadows any issue to do with gambling. The NFL is still licking its chops after Davis sued the league in order to move back to Los Angeles only to subsequently move back to Oakland.
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Kraft though, in saying in no uncertain terms that he supports Mark Davis, has thrown something of a gauntlet at Jones. “It has been a long time coming”.
