If the Raiders keep making the incremental progress they demonstrated over the past two seasons, they could easily be playing in Super Bowl 53 in February of 2019. It will be a great day for the sports fans of … of … you know, whatever city they happen to represent at that time.
The Raiders’ bid to move to Las Vegas took a nightstick across the knees this week when billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson announced a split with the team on a financing deal for a new, 65,000-seat domed stadium, and investment firm Goldman Sachs appeared to follow him out the door.
And so the Raiders and their spooky fans return to limbo. They have Derek Carr and Khalil Mack, but they have no long-term home, and no solid plan for finding one. The roadmap to this franchise’s future is an actual roadmap.
Here are some of the potential destinations, and how they currently fit into the travelogue:
LAS VEGAS
Raiders owner Mark Davis was so close to building his dream in the desert that he could hear a slot machine paying out a jackpot every time he closed his eyes. Then he made a very powerful enemy.
When Raiders representatives Marc Badain and Dan Ventrelle made a presentation to the Clark County Stadium Authority board on Jan. 26, the show included nothing about Adelson, who had been instrumental in securing $750 million in hotel-tax funding from the Nevada state legislature.
The chairman of the Las Vegas Sands corporation was miffed, and he quickly put out a statement divorcing himself from the Raiders.
Davis apparently believed he had a commitment from Goldman Sachs whether Adelson was involved or not. But those two financial giants are all but joined at the wallet, and Goldman Sachs made it clear it had no desire to fill the gap. Davis had executed a public pratfall.
“This is not a wrench in the wheel, the wheel fell off,” Clark County (Nev.) Commission chair Steve Sisolak told the Nevada Independent. “This is an enormous setback in my opinion.”
The total pie for the Vegas stadium proposal amounts to $1.9 billion. The Raiders and the NFL are expected to contribute about $500 million. Adelson had offered $650 million; that’s now the size of the hole in the bid package.
The Raiders’ Vegas vision is not dead. Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank said Friday he doesn’t think Davis will have trouble finding another partner in Sin City. The name most quickly mentioned was Lorenzo Fertitta, who sold the Ultimate Fighting Championship franchise last year for $4 billion and is one of Las Vegas’ usual suspects when it comes to big sports projects.
It’s also possible the Raiders could grovel sufficiently to lure Adelson back into the fold. Then again, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell threw that idea into doubt at his annual State of the League address Wednesday, when he reiterated his stance that no casino owner can have a stake in an NFL team, and “not likely a stadium, either.”
So yeah, it’s complicated.
And Davis is running out of time to make any of that happen. NFL owners are expected to vote on the Vegas option at their annual meeting March 26-29 in Phoenix. The Raiders, who need votes from 23 other teams to gain approval, were already likely to face some opposition based on: (1) the taint of the gambling industry; and (2) Las Vegas’ small size as a TV market.
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