The Oakland Raiders and owner Mark Davis have faced a lot of hurdles in their attempt to relocate the team to Las Vegas, and it is still in the very early stages.
Among the hurdles was getting a stadium in Nevada, which they cleared as the state approved the building of a $750 million stadium. Now all they need is the approval of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the owners of the NFL, which they don’t seem in a rush to do.
Another hurdle has now been added as billionaire Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Alderson, whose money the Raiders need to make the move happen, could possibly hold the move up if the Raiders do not follow his orders, via Will Brinson of CBS Sports:
“I negotiated to bring in the Oakland Raiders, an NFL football team from Oakland, because they don’t have a stadium there, that I would build a stadium and rent it out to the Oakland Raiders,” Adelson said Wednesday from Tel Aviv.
“They want so much,” Adelson added. “So I told my people, ‘Tell them I could live with the deal, I could live without the deal. Here’s the way it’s gonna go down. If they don’t want it, bye-bye.'”
Due to the state funding not quite being enough for the stadium, the Raiders are relying on the NFL and Adelson to help them reach the $1.9 billion in stadium costs.
If Adelson goes through with what he originally said he was going to do then he will own the stadium and the Raiders will rent it from him.
While it is still likely that the Raiders end up in Las Vegas, Adelson has the ability to stop it from happening if he chooses.
