Vegas looks to score big win with Raiders
LAS VEGAS — First the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights. Soon, maybe, the Las Vegas Raiders.
Once looked on with disdain by major sports leagues, this gambling city is now just 24 votes away from cashing in on one of the biggest sports jackpots ever.
The Raiders made it official Thursday by filing for relocation from Oakland to Las Vegas, the culmination of a whirlwind romance to bring an NFL team to a city that the league had previously gone out of its way to shun because of sports betting fears.
League owners are expected to vote on the move in March, and it’s hard to find anyone betting it won’t happen.
“I don’t know how you can put a price on this,” said Steve Sisolak, a county commissioner who has been involved in the efforts to land the team. “There are only 32 cities that can say they have an NFL team and we will be one of them.”
Actually, there is a price on it. Tourists will pay increased room taxes to fund $750 million of the cost of a new $1.9 billion stadium as part of a deal rammed through a special session of the Nevada Legislature by powerful casino owner Sheldon Adelson’s family.
The stadium will be just off the glittering Las Vegas Strip, where the Golden Knights will begin play this fall in a new arena of their own. The expansion hockey team is the first major sports franchise to call the city home.
“Without the Golden Knights I don’t know if the Raiders would have thought this was a viable market,” Sisolak said. “They kind of broke the glass ceiling.”
If approved, the move would be the third announced by an NFL team in a year as the league undergoes a geographic shift unlike any in recent history. The Rams returned to Los Angeles from St. Louis this season, while the San Diego Chargers will begin play in LA next season.
“(Raiders owner) Mark Davis is a man of his word and the filing of the Raiders’ application for relocation of the franchise with the NFL is a significant step in bringing the team to Las Vegas,” Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval said.
The NFL has long been opposed to any association with Las Vegas, to the point where just a few years ago it refused to allow the city to advertise on the Super Bowl telecast because it offered legal betting. But the league’s opposition has softened, and so has the stance of Commissioner Roger Goodell.
“I think there are some real strengths to the Las Vegas market,” Goodell said at an owners’ meeting last month. “It’s clear the Las Vegas market has become a more diversified market, more broadly involved with entertainment, hosting big events. And there’s a growth to the market.”