Vegas bet could be winner for Raiders, Davis
With L.A. window closing, move makes sense
Officially, there’s no timeline for the Oakland Raiders to pack up the moving vans and head to Las Vegas.
In reality, it is a potential deal seemingly on such a fast track that it might set some sort of NFL record.
At the NFL meetings in Charlotte this week, Raiders owner Mark Davis reiterated what he declared in Vegas a few weeks ago. And he didn’t stutter.
“If they can get done what they’re talking about doing,” Davis said, referring to plans pursued by Nevada officials for a $1.4 billion domed stadium, “then we will go to Las Vegas.”
That was an NFL version of: “Read my lips.”
His father, the late and legendary maverick Al Davis, would be so proud.
Six months ago, the Raiders were in the running with the San Diego Chargers and the then-St. Louis Rams to lay claim to the fabulous Los Angeles market. Well, sort of.
The Raiders looked a lot like the third wheel in the L.A. equation, joining forces on a project for a stadium in Carson, Calif., that was led by the Chargers. That bid was blown away by Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s plan for a palace in Inglewood, which just this week added the expected Super Bowl berth for 2021.
Yet even when the Raiders — who, technically, could still end up in Los Angeles — were in the mix in Carson, there were so many whispers in the NFL community that it was the franchise that the league least wanted in the USA’s second-largest market.
Davis hardly has the financial portfolio of multibillionaire Kroenke, who is building his stadium (and adjacent real estate development) without a drop of public money and is so well-positioned to, well, not blow the NFL’s re-entry into La La Land.
It’s striking, though, to consider how Davis has come out of the Los Angeles competition.
Surely, the public persona is such a contrast. Davis seemed like such a passive player in the L.A. stakes, compared to Kroenke and Chargers owner Dean Spanos. Now he seems so buff.
When he talks about market research studies and about uniting Raider Nation — suggesting that Northern California fans and Southern California fans can agree on Vegas — it reflects a bold, aggressive mind-set.
I mean, the Raiders, with an emerging team, have set a franchise record with 50,000 season ticket sales this year — for playing at Oakland Coliseum — and, for all of the ifs over the years, are suddenly poised to really bolt.
Perhaps the approach to Las Vegas reflects a lesson learned from Los Angeles, because Davis is reflecting the verve of a man who will not let this new oppor- tunity slip away.
Davis can control only so much. He’s pledged $500 million toward a domed stadium (including $200 million from an NFL loan), with Sands Corp. CEO Sheldon Adelson and Majestic Realty ponying up $150 million. More than half of the projected stadium cost, $750 million, would come from a hotel tax, if approved by lawmakers. Talk about a fast track. It’s possible Nevada’s Legislature, not scheduled to meet again until 2017, could call for a special summer session to consider the matter.
The 54% public share proposed in the Vegas project would be the highest slice for an NFL stadium since Indianapolis built Lucas Oil Stadium with public dollars accounting for 88%. That wouldn’t work in all markets (see Oakland, Los Angeles and San Diego), but in tourism hotbed Las Vegas — which, as it stands, would be the NFL’s fifth-smallest market — it probably works, with the hotel tax essentially footed by guests.
Las Vegas attracted more than 42 million visitors last year, 16% of them coming from international destinations, which surely plays into the NFL’s visions for growing a global fan base.
If the Chargers strike a deal to stay in San Diego, which could hinge on a taxpayer vote, the Raiders could theoretically opt in as the second team in Los Angeles. But Davis has declared that the San Diego situation, and its link to Los Angeles, has no bearing on his designs for Las Vegas.
He can’t wait on those dominoes to fall. Not with Davis aggressively playing his chips on Vegas.