The potential move of the Raiders to Las Vegas is a major story in the news this week although sadly nearly all of it is negative. Following Monday’s announcement that Sheldon Adelson would no longer be contributing to the stadium costs, Goldman Sachs have withdrawn their financial support as well. Goldman Sachs has a long-standing business relationship with Adelson and it seems they are unwilling to tarnish this relationship by helping Mark Davis.
This is a significant blow to the Vegas Raiders and one that leaves the entire more in jeopardy. The team would now need to find a new investment bank or take on another partner to replace Adelson. This is the more likely of the two, but with gambling-based restrictions on team owners/partners and the nature of Las Vegas, this could be difficult. As of yet, nobody specific has been named as a possible replacement.
Since this news has broken, the mayor of San Diego reached out to NFL officials saying it would be willing to adopt the Raiders should their move to Las Vegas fall through. San Diego lost the Chargers in January of this year after they declared they would be following the Rams and moving to Los Angeles.
The involvement of San Diego brings into question the real reason why Mark Davis wants to move. If he really wants to just take his team out of Oakland then it is likely he will consider San Diego, purely because they already have a stadium ready and would be significantly cheaper than building a new one. On the other hand, if it is about entering a new market and getting an improved stadium, then Davis should ignore any reach from San Diego. The Chargers moved because San Diego was not a big market for an NFL team, which in turn was showed by no interest from the area to fund refurbishing the stadium.
News is breaking thick and fast about this potential move before the league meeting in January. But one thing is for certain- San Diego Raiders? No thanks.