Before the Las Vegas Raiders officially made the move from Oakland, Mark Davis discussed the possibility of moving the franchise back to Los Angeles.
It was clear that Davis and the Raiders wanted a new stadium, which Oakland was unwilling to provide, so he left no stones unturned before ultimately landing on the desert as the organization’s new home.
Ultimately though, the league decided to allow the Rams and Chargers to relocate to L.A. and not the Raiders. So While the Davis family and the Raiders called L.A. home from 1982-1994, they likely will never do so again.
That is something that is OK with Davis as he believes them being denied was the best thing to happen to the organization, via Vic Tafur of The Athletic:
“I have lost games before,” Davis said. “That’s how I have learned to live my life — you lose on Sunday, you’re pissed about it, I go to P.F. Chang’s on Monday, I have lunch and then I am on to the next week. We got our ass kicked in LA, and we went back to Oakland with our tails between our legs. And then McKibben backtracked and tripled our lease, and it was total disrespect. It was like, how are we going to work with these people?
“Vegas had been after us for years, but I told them I will only talk to you if Oakland and Los Angeles don’t happen. Losing the LA vote was probably the best thing that ever happened for us.”
Davis also recently expressed thanks for the Las Vegas community for being so welcoming to the Raiders, so it seems the city and organization are already off to a good start in their new relationship.
A big part of why Davis is so excited about Las Vegas is because of the team’s new state-of-the-art Allegiant Stadium, which is nearing its completion. All Davis has ever wanted is a facility that the Raiders can call home, so it is great to see that they finally were able to get that.
