The Oakland Raiders and owner Mark Davis continue to move closer to moving the team to Las Vegas, as the state of Nevada approved the building of a $750 million stadium.
But the move would also depend on more funding, particularly from Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who recently said he could shut the whole thing down if the Raiders do no follow his orders.
Despite the threat it still looks like the move will happen as long as the NFL owners approve it. One NFL owner, Jerry Jones, who owns the Dallas Cowboys, has been a big advocate of the Raiders moving to Las Vegas, and he believes that the move will happen, via Will Brinson of CBS Sports:
“Really if you look at the history of teams moving, this is pretty definitive. There’s a pretty bright line right there. They’ve provided for a team, the most funding that’s ever been funded from third parties,” Jones said. “So that’s about as strong, L.A. never really had that powerful of influence, I’ll put it that way. Which is over $700 million of initial contribution from the state of Nevada and the city of Las Vegas. That’s pretty strong. Vegas has a lot going for it. I think it’s going to really have, a real, if you will, strong case to get an NFL football team. I know that Oakland, certainly, was approved to move earlier this year.
“And you put all of that together and that’s pretty confluence of things coming together. I call that the crosshair theory when things get in the crosshair, you better recognize it most of the time.”
If Oakland wants to keep the Raiders then Davis has said that he wants a new stadium, which doesn’t seem likely to happen as the mayor of Oakland has said that the city is more committed to baseball than football.