In the past few years there has been a lot of rumors that owner Mark Davis plans to move the Oakland Raiders elsewhere.
Among the rumored destinations have been possibly returning to Los Angeles, where they once called home, or to Las Vegas where there has never been a professional sports team.
With the mayor of Oakland Libby Schaaf recently saying that the city’s preference is baseball, it all but pushed the Raiders, who possibly could remain in Oakland if they can build a new stadium, away.
While all that was going on the Nevada Senate approved a stadium deal for a $750 million stadium to be built in Las Vegas with the intentions of the Raiders relocating there.
On Thursday the state assembly also passed the bill, which was the last big hurdle for the stadium to be built. With the bill being passed, Friday the Raiders and Davis issued the following statement:
“I would like to thank Governor Sandoval, the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee, and the members of the Nevada Legislature on this historic day, ” said Raiders owner Mark Davis. “All parties have worked extremely hard to develop and approve this tremendous stadium project that will serve as a proud new home for the entire Raider Nation.”
Now the only remaining thing that needs to happen before the Raiders end up in the desert is that 23 of the 32 owners in the NFL need to approve the move.
If the owners do not approve the move Davis could take the case to court, so there is still a possibility the Raiders make the move without the approval of the NFL’s owners.
Meanwhile, the Raiders are off to their best start in over a decade as they are currently 4-1 and leading the AFC West heading into a Week 6 divisional matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.
