Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis told fellow owners at the National Football League meetings in Houston, Texas, Wednesday that he plans to apply for relocation to Las Vegas, Nevade, in January, according to ESPN.
That move was seemingly imminent after Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval signed a bill Monday that cleared the way for a new stadium to be built near the world-famous Las Vegas Strip, approving $750 million in financing for the stadium project. The money will come from an 0.88 percent room tax increase for hotels on the Strip. Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire owner of Las Vegas Sands, which owns and operates the Venetian resort, will provide $650 million in financing, and the Raiders will chip in $500 million for the domed stadium expected to open in 2019.
To set up shop in Sin City, the Raiders need the approval of 24 of the NFL’s 32 owners for the deal to go ahead.
The Raiders applied for relocation to Los Angeles in January alongside the then-St. Louis Rams and San Diego Chargers, intending to split a to-be-constructed stadium in the suburb of Carson with the Chargers. However, the NFL approved the Rams’ application, giving the Chargers (and if they decline after one year, Raiders) the option to join the Rams in their new Inglewood stadium, which is set to open in 2019 — but as a tenant.
The Raiders currently share the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum with the Oakland Athletics baseball team — the only NFL stadium that currently has that arrangement. Built in 1966, the Coliseum is an older park without the amenities now standard in more modern NFL stadiums.
Raiders Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott is leading a group attempting to build a new stadium in Oakland and keep the team in the Bay Area, but that appears to be a longshot. The Raiders have options to play in Oakland for the 2017 and 2018 seasons, while the Las Vegas Stadium is being built.