The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Raiders moving to Vegas
All owners but one approve the team leaving Oakland.
Invoking his PHOENIX — father Al’s name, and copying what the Hall of Fame owner did with the Raiders, Mark Davis is moving the franchise out of Oakland.
NFL owners approved the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas 31-1 at the league meetings Monday. Miami was the lone dissenter.
“My father used to say the greatness of the Raiders is in the future,” Davis said. “This gives us the ability to achieve that.”
The vote was a foregone conclusion after the league and Raiders were not satisfied with Oakland’s proposals for a new stadium, and Las Vegas stepped up with $750 million in public money. Bank of America also is giving Davis a $650 million loan, further helping to persuade owners to allow the third team relocation in just over a year.
The Rams moved from St. Louis to Los Angeles in 2016, and in January the Chargers relocated from San Diego to L.A.
“You know our goal is to have 32 stable franchises for each team and the league,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “We work very hard and never want to see the relocation of a franchise. We worked tirelessly over the last nine months or so on a solution. We needed to provide certainties and stability for the Raiders and the league.”
The Raiders, whose relocation fee of approximately $350 million is less than the $650 million the Rams and Chargers paid, likely will play two or three more years in the Bay Area before their $1.7 billion stadium near the Las Vegas Strip is ready.
“I wouldn’t use the term lame duck,” Davis insisted. “We’re still the Raiders and we represent Raider Nation. There will be disappointed fans and it’s important for me to talk to them to explain why and how.”
Las Vegas, long taboo to the NFL because of its legalized gambling, also is getting an NHL team this fall, the Golden Knights.
“Today will forever change the landscape of Las Vegas and UNLV football,” said Steve Sisolak, chairman of the Clark County Commission and a former member of a panel appointed by Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval to study the stadium tax funding plan. “I couldn’t be more excited for the fans and residents of Clark County as we move forward with the Raiders and the Rebels.”
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and a group trying to keep the team in Oakland, made a last-ditch presentation to the NFL last week. But that letter was “filled with uncertainty,” according to Goodell.
Leaving the Bay Area is not something new with the Raiders, who played in Los Angeles from 198294 before heading back to Oakland. Davis was passed over last year in an attempt to move to a stadium in the L.A. area that would have
been jointly financed with the Chargers. Instead, the owners approved the Rams’ relocation and gave the Chargers an option to join them, which they exercised this winter. Seahawks QB Boykin
arrested: Seattle backup quarterback Trevone Boykin was arrested in Dallas after police say he was in a vehicle that hit seven people on a sidewalk near a bar.
Jail records show Boykin, a former TCU quarterback, was booked early Monday on misdemeanor charges of public intoxication and possession of marijuana.
Dallas police say a vehicle backed onto a sidewalk and struck seven pedestrians, plus the bar, slightly injuring a bartender. All suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The woman driving was arrested for felony intoxication assault with a vehicle. Cornerbacks arrested: Authorities in Cedar Falls, Iowa, say Chicago Bears cornerback Deiondre Hall and Green Bay Packers cornerback Makinton Dorleant were arrested outside a bar there Saturday night.
Hall was cited for disorderly conduct, public intoxication and interference with official acts. Dorleant was cited for interference.