With the annual league meeting just round the corner, it’s time for those of us that want the Vegas Raiders to become a reality to start paying attention to all the NFL news going around. The potential relocation is easily the biggest thing on the agenda for all league owners, and one that has taken a positive turn recently.
The league set the relocation fee for Mark Davis and the Oakland Raiders at $325 million -$375million, per sources. Compared to the $650 million the Rams and Chargers both paid to go to Los Angeles, that’s a complete bargain. It must be said this should be a credit to the league as the relocation fee was one of the major problems the Raiders faced from now until the voting period, but it seems that it may have just sealed the deal.
The fee could suggest that the league really believes that the required 75% of 32 league owners will vote in favour of the move. It also gives owners a hint that the league may finally be backing the move for once, so all around there are positive signs.
There are some questions arising about the change of markets, going from Oakland which is apparently ‘extremely passionate’ about its football and the sixth largest market in the US to Las Vegas, an unknown quantity and the 40th largest market. Moves from San Diego and St Louis already caused quite a stir, and its whether owners want a trend of teams just moving wherever they fancy to continue.
To that I would say how can Oakland be passionate about its football in any shape if local officials have shown no desire to upgrade the current stadium and keep the team? If citizens are passionate there would be a group come forward to put pressure on local officials to do more for the team, of which there have been none. The only challenge came from an ex-player and that didnt seem to materialise at all.