On the heels of the San Diego Chargers bolting to Los Angeles, the Oakland Raiders efforts to relocate have gained momentum and support around the NFL and it is beginning to look like the Bay Area will be losing their team.
According to Ian Rapaport of NFL Network, the NFL has received the team’s relocation papers which will likely result in a March vote:
The @NFL has just received the #Raiders paperwork. Should be a March vote. https://t.co/gRSyxaMOfA
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 19, 2017
The move was expected from the team as earlier reports stated that Oakland would file within days, roughly a month earlier than the Feb. 15 deadline. Filing for relocation was the first stage in the process and the next step will be NFL owners voting for whether it should go through. The Raiders will need 24 votes for their move to occur and it could be voted on as soon as March during the Annual League Meeting.
If the majority of NFL owners vote in favor of relocation, the Raiders are expected to stay in Oakland for at least two more seasons before making their move to Las Vegas in 2020. The team’s potential new home would be a 65,000-seat, domed stadium that would cost nearly $2 billion to build.
Raiders owner Mark Davis has tried to keep the team in Oakland, but after making little to no progress on a new stadium plan, all signs seem to point toward Las Vegas housing their very own football team in the near future.
