The Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas was a successful effort by the owner of the Oakland Raiders (Mark Davis) to relocate the American football club from its current and longtime home of Oakland, California to Las Vegas, Nevada. The team is scheduled to begin play as the Las Vegas Raiders for the 2020 National Football League (NFL) season (although a move to Las Vegas could happen as soon as 2019 with Sam Boyd Stadium), playing home games at the Las Vegas Stadium. NFL team owners voted 31-1 to approve the move, which was announced at the annual league meetings in Phoenix, Arizona on March 27, 2017. The Raiders became the third NFL franchise to relocate in the 2010s, following the Rams' move from St. Louis, Missouri to Los Angeles, California on January 12, 2016, and the Chargers' move from San Diego, California to Los Angeles on January 12, 2017. The Raiders' move to Las Vegas comes after years of failed efforts to renovate or replace the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, which has been rated by multiple sources as one of the worst stadiums in the NFL.
Video Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas
Background
The Oakland Raiders were founded as a charter member of the American Football League (AFL) in 1960. The team joined the NFL as a result of the merger in 1970. From 1966 until 1981, it played home games at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, which it shared with Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics after that team moved to Oakland in 1968. In 1980 Al Davis, dissatisfied with the stadium situation in Oakland and seeing luxury boxes as the future of the NFL came to an agreement with the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum commission to move the Raiders to Los Angeles. The NFL had refused to let the team move, but a court over-ruled the league, clearing the way for the Raiders to move to Los Angeles and become the Los Angeles Raiders. In 1982, the Raiders (then owned by Al Davis) were approved to relocate from Oakland to Los Angeles. The Raiders played home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from 1982-1994. In 1995, after being unable to secure a new stadium in the Los Angeles area the Raiders moved back to Oakland.
Meanwhile, Las Vegas had been home to a number of other professional football franchises between 1994 and the Raiders' arrival, none of which were particularly successful. The Las Vegas Posse, part of the Canadian Football League's effort to enter the U.S. market, lasted one season in 1994 and suffered from poor on-field product and worse attendance figures. The XFL included the Las Vegas Outlaws in its lone 2001 season; its attendance and on-field performance were respectable, and the team embraced the city's culture, but the Outlaws' modest success was overshadowed by the failure of the XFL. The Las Vegas Locomotives of the United Football League were a major on-field success and were one of the UFL's best teams; it nonetheless suffered from poor attendance to start that continued to decline throughout the league's existence to the point that its last home game drew only 600 fans. The Arena Football League included three teams in Las Vegas over the course of its history: the Las Vegas Sting (1994 and 1995), Las Vegas Gladiators (2003 to 2007, now the Cleveland Gladiators), and another Las Vegas Outlaws (2015). The Las Vegas Sin of the Lingerie Football League (now the Legends Football League) played in the city from 2011 to 2014.
Maps Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas
The hunt for a home
Recent efforts to either renovate or replace the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum with a new football stadium in Oakland or elsewhere date back to November 18, 2009. In 2011, Al Davis died and control of the team was assumed by his son Mark Davis who made finding a solution to the 3 decade long stadium problem a top priority. The Raiders were free to move after the 2013 NFL season, when its lease on the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum expired. While exploring possible solutions in the Bay Area and potential relocation candidates, the Raiders signed one-year extensions of its lease on the Coliseum.
2011: Levi's Stadium
There had been discussions for the Raiders to share Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California with the San Francisco 49ers. However, the 49ers went ahead without the Raiders and broke ground on the $1.2 billion stadium on April 19, 2012 and afterwards sold $670 million worth of seats including 70% of club and luxury suites, making it more unlikely that the Raiders would continue to explore the idea of sharing the stadium as they would then be secondary tenants with little to no commercial rights over the highly lucrative luxury suites.
Mark Davis further increased the unlikelihood of the Raiders and the 49ers to share Levi's stadium when he told NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport that he had no plans to share the stadium but that he did recognize the Raiders' need for a new home and that he hoped the new home would be in Oakland. When Levi's Stadium had its grand opening on July 17, 2014, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell mentioned to the live crowd that it would make a great home for the Raiders and that it was up for the team to decide whether or not it wanted to play there or build a stadium on the site of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
2012-2013: Coliseum City
On March 7, 2012, then-mayor Jean Quan unveiled an ambitious project to the media that was designed to improve the sports facilities of all three major league sports teams in the city (the Raiders, Major League Baseball (MLB)'s Athletics and the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s Golden State Warriors), as well as attract new businesses to the city. The project, dubbed Coliseum City, had entailed the redevelopment of the existing Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum complex. The redevelopment would have seen the construction of two new stadiums on the present location, a baseball-only stadium and a football-only stadium, while Oracle Arena, home of the Warriors, would have been either rebuilt or undergone extensive renovations. A sum of $3.5 million was committed to preliminary planning on the project. However, no officials from either of Oakland's major league teams were present at the media conference.
According to the San Francisco Business Times, Oakland's assistant city administrator Fred Blackwell said the Bay Investment Group LLC, an entity being formed by Colony Capital LLC, Rashid Al Malik (chairman and CEO of HayaH Holdings), and the city, had numerous details to continue working out for the prospective $2 billion Coliseum City project, which covered 800 acres surrounding the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum Complex. The development team also included JRDV Urban International, HKS Architects, and Forest City Real Estate Services. In an ideal situation, construction could have started by the end of 2014. Meanwhile, the Warriors began to go forward with plans to build a new arena at Mission Bay, not far from AT&T Park, and move back across the Bay from Oakland to San Francisco as soon as 2019.
2013: Concord, California
The abandoned Concord Naval Weapons Station, 26.6 miles from Oakland, was announced in 2013 as a possible location for a new stadium but developments failed to materialize.
2014: San Antonio, Texas
In July 2014, San Antonio, Texas, emerged as a potential relocation candidate for the team, after Raiders owner Mark Davis visited an event hosted for former Raiders wide receiver Cliff Branch in the city. San Antonio, while it was in a smaller media market than the San Francisco Bay Area, had the advantage of having a relatively new and NFL-ready stadium in the Alamodome and less sporting competition. On July 29, 2014, it was reported by the San Antonio Express-News that Mark Davis met with officials from the city of San Antonio to discuss the possibility of relocating the Raiders to San Antonio after the 2014-15 NFL season. Davis confirmed that he did speak with San Antonio city officials while visiting San Antonio to honor former Raiders wide receiver Cliff Branch's induction into a local Hall of Fame, but did not comment on whether he was considering relocation to San Antonio. The Raiders would have played at the 65,000-seat Alamodome until a new stadium could be built. San Antonio remained in contention as a site through at least November 2014, when Raiders staffers scouted the stadium and began negotiating with San Antonio officials.
2015: Raiders attempt to put together a project with Athletics
It was reported in early 2015 that the Raiders sat down with Athletics owner Lewis Wolff in an effort to create a stadium solution where two separate stadiums (one for the Raiders and one for the Athletics) would have been built on the coliseum site. The Athletics balked at the deal. In an interview with J. T. the Brick on KGMZ on April 4, 2017, Davis revealed that he offered Wolff (the owner of the Athletics) 20 percent of the Raiders in an attempt to get a deal done. Davis further elaborated that the closest that the Raiders came to a deal in Oakland was in 2013 with Colony Capital, before the Athletics agreed to a 10-year lease extension at the Coliseum with the city of Oakland.
2015: Los Angeles project and losing to the Rams
On February 19, 2015, the Raiders and the then San Diego Chargers announced that they would build a privately financed $1.78 billion stadium in Carson, California if they were to move back to the Los Angeles market. Both teams stated that they would continue to attempt to get stadiums built in their respective cities. The Carson City Council would bypass the public vote and approved the plan 3-0. The council voted without having clarified several issues, including who would finance the stadium, how the required three-way land swap would be performed, and how it would raise enough revenue if only one team moved in as tenant. On January 12, the NFL rejected the Raiders' relocation request in favor of a competing plan by Stan Kroenke to move the then St. Louis Rams back to Los Angeles and construct a stadium and entertainment district in Inglewood, California. However, the NFL left open the possibility of the Raiders relocating to Los Angeles by 2019 and playing in the new stadium under construction to house the Los Angeles Rams. The San Diego Chargers however had the first option to join the Rams at the new stadium, the Raiders would have been authorized to negotiate an agreement if the Chargers did not exercise their option by January 2017. The Chargers exercised their choice and announced their relocation to Los Angeles in January 2017, shutting the Raiders out of the Southern California market.
Around this time other markets expressed interest in luring the Raiders. For example Duluth, Minnesota submitted a proposal to construct a new stadium for the team, a proposal that was not taken seriously because of the metro area's small size, proximity to the Minnesota Vikings and unwillingness to commit money to the stadium proposal.
Less than a month after the Chargers announced their move to Los Angeles, Las Vegas had emerged as the most likely destination candidate for the Raiders.
2016-2017: Negotiations to move to Las Vegas and last Oakland stadium effort
2016
On January 29, 2016, Davis met with Las Vegas Sands owner Sheldon Adelson about possibly relocating to a $2.3 billion, 65,000 capacity domed stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. During Davis' meeting with Adelson, he also visited the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), which included a contingent consisting of the university's president Len Jessup, former university president Donald Snyder, Steve Wynn, and former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) owner Lorenzo Fertitta. The proposed stadium would replace Sam Boyd Stadium and would serve as the home of both the Raiders and the UNLV Rebels college football program. A relocation to Las Vegas would be a long-term proposal, as Sam Boyd Stadium is undersized for the NFL and there are no other professional-caliber stadiums in Nevada. Raiders officials were also in Las Vegas to tour locations in the valley for a potential new home; they were also on the 42-acre site of the proposed stadium to ask questions about the site.
Interviewed by sports columnist Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News, Davis said that he had a "great" visit in the city he described it as interesting. Davis also said that Las Vegas was a global city and that "it's absolutely an NFL city," as well as saying that "the Raider brand would do well" and "I think Las Vegas is coming along slowly."
On March 21, 2016, when asked about Las Vegas, Davis said, "I think the Raiders like the Las Vegas plan," and "it's a very very very intriguing and exciting plan," referring to the stadium plan in Las Vegas. Davis also met with Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval about the stadium plan. On April 1, 2016, Davis toured Sam Boyd Stadium to evaluate whether UNLV could serve as a temporary home of the team and was with UNLV football coach Tony Sanchez, athletic director Tina Kunzer-Murphy, adviser Don Snyder and school president Len Jessup to further explore the possibility of the Raiders moving to Las Vegas.
On April 28, 2016, Davis said he wanted to move the Raiders to Las Vegas and pledged $500 million toward the construction of a proposed $2.4 billion domed stadium. "Together we can turn the Silver State into the silver and black state," Davis said.
At a media conference in UNLV's Stan Fulton Building, Davis also said the club had "made a commitment to Las Vegas at this point in time and that's where it stands." In an interview with ESPN after returning from a meeting for the 2016 NFL draft he expanded upon reasons why Southern Nevada held a certain appeal over the East Bay of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area, how he tried to make it work in Oakland and why (as he told Sandoval) he hopes to turn Nevada into the "Silver and Black State"; he also spoke of the meeting saying, "It was a positive, well-organized presentation that I believe was well-received", and stating, "It was a very positive step in finding the Raiders a home."
On May 20, 2016, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft said he would support Davis and the Raiders move to Las Vegas, stating, "I think it would be good for the NFL."
On May 23, 2016, the San Francisco Chronicle and other media outlets reported that a group led by former San Francisco 49ers safety (and Pro Football Hall of Fame member) Ronnie Lott and retired quarterback Rodney Peete were looking into building a new Oakland stadium for the Raiders. The group met with team executives and Oakland city officials to brief them on their proposal. They also met with mayor Libby Schaaf. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted to begin negotiations with Lott's group and with the city of Oakland regarding the "price and terms of sale" for the 120-acre land of the Oakland Coliseum and Oracle Arena.
Davis publicly reiterated his commitment to his announced plans to relocate the Raiders franchise to Las Vegas, Nevada with the support of the state of Nevada and casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, and said he did not wish to negotiate further with Oakland while the Las Vegas deal was still actively in progress; any relocation to Las Vegas needed to be approved by a three-quarters majority of all NFL owners, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell publicly stated his preference for keeping the Raiders franchise in Oakland if at all possible. However, it was reported that the NFL had issues with the Lott Group's financier Fortress Investment Group due to past issues the group had.
On August 11, 2016, Raiders' officials met with Northern Nevada officials about the possibility of Reno being the site of a new training camp/practice facility and toured several sites including the University of Nevada, Reno, Reno area high schools, and sports complexes. On August 25, 2016, the Raiders filed a trademark application for "Las Vegas Raiders" on the same day renderings of a new stadium (located west of Interstate 15 at Las Vegas) were released to the public.
On September 15, 2016, the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee unanimously voted to recommend and approve $750 million for the Las Vegas stadium plan.
On October 11, 2016, the Nevada Senate voted 16-5 to approve the funding bill for the Las Vegas stadium proposal. The Nevada Assembly voted 28-13 three days later to approve the bill to fund the new Las Vegas stadium proposal; two days later, Sandoval signed the funding bill into law.
Davis told ESPN on October 15, 2016 that even if the Raiders were approved by the league to relocate to the Las Vegas metropolitan area, the club would play the next two seasons at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in 2017 and 2018, stating "We want to bring a Super Bowl championship back to the Bay Area." The team would then play at a temporary facility in 2019 after its lease at the Coliseum expires. Davis has also indicated a desire to play at least one preseason game in Las Vegas, at Sam Boyd Stadium, as early as the 2017 season. (The Raiders' 2017 schedule has both preseason games in Oakland.)
On October 17, 2016, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval signed into law Senate Bill 1 and Assembly Bill 1 which approved a hotel room rate tax increase to accommodate $750 million in public funding for the new stadium.
On November 12, 2016, a report from the NFL's own in-house media team outlined how Las Vegas might not be a done deal. The report stated that the majority of owners favored the Raiders staying in Oakland due to market size and stability. The vast majority of the NFL's revenue comes from TV contracts. So because of that, it made little sense for the other 31 NFL owners to vote in favor of one of their partners abandoning the 6th biggest media market for the 42nd.
On November 30, 2016, a framework deal to keep the Raiders in Oakland was announced. In addition to the public land, the city of Oakland would commit $200 million to improve the infrastructure of the surrounding area. The Raiders would contribute $500 million to the stadium, while Lott's group would contribute $400 million; the NFL already committed $300 million when it rejected the Raiders' bid to return to Los Angeles in 2015. Ronnie Lott had no financial or ownership stake in the Raiders; some sources indicated that Lott was also asking for an ownership stake (reportedly around 20 percent) in the Raiders franchise as part of the deal, a condition that was unacceptable to Raiders owner Mark Davis.
The Oakland proposal was officially announced in December 2016, and called for a $1.3 billion, football-only stadium built on the existing Coliseum site. It included mixed use development for possible office or retail space, hotel or residential living and parking, as well as 15 acres set aside for a new baseball-only facility for the Oakland Athletics if the A's so desired. The site also could have been expanded to include the land Oracle Arena sits on, with the Warriors cleared to move to their new San Francisco arena by the 2019 season.
The Ronnie Lott proposal was voted on by the Oakland city and Alameda County elected officials on December 13, 2016 and approved by Oakland in a 7-0 vote and by Alameda County in a 3-1 vote.
2017
The Raiders officially filed paperwork to relocate from Oakland, California, to Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 19, 2017. The Raiders needed 24 of the 32 NFL club owners to vote to officially approve the move to Las Vegas.
On January 30, 2017, it was announced that Adelson had dropped out of the stadium project, also withdrawing the Las Vegas Sands' proposed $650 million contribution from the project. Instead, the Raiders would increase their contribution from $500 million to $1.15 billion. One day after Adelson's announcement, Goldman Sachs (the company behind the financing to the proposed Las Vegas stadium) announced its intent to withdraw from the project.
On January 31, 2017, in the aftermath of Adelson and Goldman Sachs' withdrawal from the Las Vegas deal, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Mayor Kevin Faulconer reached out to an NFL official to let them know they were eager to engage; a city official also spoke to a Raiders official on the phone. The Union-Tribune noted that any possible Raiders relocation to San Diego or bringing a team to the city would have been aided by a proposal for a soccer-specific stadium and mixed development. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell reiterated, during his State of the NFL address, that San Diego would need a new stadium in order to be a relocation possibility. Another roadblock for a Raiders relocation to the city would have been the owners of the current Los Angeles teams. Stan Kroenke and Dean Spanos would block any team from sharing Southern California, especially if that team is the Raiders (given the team's continued popularity in the region). San Diego, as an option for the Raiders, was remote.
San Diego was previously home to the San Diego Chargers from 1961 until 2016 (when the team relocated to the Greater Los Angeles Area); a Raiders move there would have been ironic given that the team's primary rival the Chargers were based in that city. On February 16, 2017, the San Diego Union-Tribune obtained a letter from Doug Manchester that stated he had "assembled a powerful group of associates" who would develop a 70,000-seat stadium on the land of Qualcomm Stadium; the letter also stated the project would provide "a viable alternative" to the Raiders in case Las Vegas fell through; the group also stated that they were "open to working with the Chargers, Raiders, other NFL owners, or a new ownership group"; it also stated an NFL franchise could participate as a partner or tenant: "Our group will provide the funds previously allocated to be provided by the City of San Diego and guarantee the stadium's expeditious construction. Accordingly it will not require voter approval." It also said they would provide "new state of the art scoreboards and upgrade Qualcomm Stadium while the new stadium is being constructed". On March 1, 2017, Fortress Investment Group submitted a tweaked version of the Oakland stadium plan to the NFL.
Relocation to Las Vegas
On March 6, 2017, the Raiders revealed that Bank of America would be replacing Sheldon Adelson's portion of the funding for the new stadium in Las Vegas. On March 27, 2017, the National Football League officially approved the Raiders move from Oakland to Las Vegas in a 31-1 vote, ensuring them a new stadium in the process. However, even though the Raiders were approved to move to Las Vegas, the club will still play the 2017 and 2018 NFL seasons at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum and still be known as the Oakland Raiders as long as they play in the San Francisco Bay Area. About one thousand season ticket holders asked for and received refunds after the move to Las Vegas was announced. Their tickets were sold to other fans within hours, and the Raiders' 53,250 season tickets were all sold out by late May.
The league levied a $350 million relocation fee on the Raiders, which will be paid in ten annual installments beginning in 2019. This figure is slightly more than half of the $650 million fee that the Rams and Chargers each paid to relocate to Los Angeles.
On November 13, 2017, the Raiders officially broke ground on Las Vegas Stadium.
Popular culture
In season 3 of the HBO television series Ballers, which was produced in 2016 and aired in 2017, Spencer Strasmore (Dwayne Johnson) leads an effort to relocate the Raiders to Las Vegas.
See also
- Baltimore Colts relocation to Indianapolis
- Cleveland Browns relocation controversy
- National Football League franchise moves and mergers
- Relocation of professional sports teams
- National Football League controversies
References
External links
- Sin City Or Bust - A profile on how Mark Davis moved the Raiders to Las Vegas from ESPN's Outside the Lines
- Las Vegas Raiders from the Oakland Raiders' official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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