It’s done. 31 owners of NFL teams have voted to allow the Oakland Raiders to move to Las Vegas.
Owners met in Phoenix to vote on the move and other NFL issues, which are now going to be something Nevadans will hear much more about in the coming years.
Jeff Gillan, anchor and reporter for Channel 3, KSNV-TV in Las Vegas, covered the historic meeting. He said the vote came very quickly after Raiders' owner Marc Davis made his presentation to the owners.
“It was obvious that Davis had done an awful lot of leg work heading up until this moment,” he said.
Gillan said when Davis, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and others addressed the media they had a simple message.
“The message from NFL, from Goodell, from Marc Davis was, ‘look we could just not get it done in Oakland.’ The NFL’s contention, something that Oakland would disagree with, was ‘look we really tried to work with them but they weren’t working with us,'” Gillan said.
Davis really started looking for a new place to play when Alameda County raised the rent on the stadium where the Raiders currently play. It was at that point that Davis knew he had to find a new home for the team, Gillan said.
“Today is a culmination of really an effort that took more than a year on his part after he was shut out of going back to L.A., but really a culmination of a year of effort to find another home and today he found Las Vegas,” Gillan said.
While the owners said 'yes,' it was a conditional 'yes.' They still want to see the lease agreement, which is supposed to tie the Raiders to Las Vegas for 30 years. They also want to see the stadium design.
But supporters of the deal say the finances are strong, and the economics of building the stadium and bringing the Raiders here are sound.
“The NFL is making a bet on Las Vegas and not a small one,” Gillan said.
The plan at this point is that the Raiders will start playing in Las Vegas in 2020.
Jeff Gillan, anchor and reporter for Channel 3, KSNV-TV
