Raiders Owner Mark Davis Gives Vegas His Commitment

CHARLOTTE—So are the Oakland Raiders moving to Las Vegas? There is a very good chance, according to team owner Mark Davis.

“I’ve given my commitment to Las Vegas, so if they can come up with what they’re talking about there, we’ll go to Las Vegas,” Davis said Tuesday in Charlotte at the NFL’s Owners Meeting.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, what say you?

“It’s very premature at this point,” Goodell said in Charlotte. “There is a great deal of work that needs to be done for ownership to make that kind of consideration. The stadium itself; what the stadium proposal is; the market itself; the market studies. Obviously, in Las Vegas, it’s well-documented, we have to consider the impact from a gambling standpoint. All of those things are an ownership decision and until we have more information, it’s pure speculation at this point.”

What kind of feedback is Davis getting from his fellow owners about the potential move? He needs 24 of 32 owners to approve.

“I haven’t heard ‘no,’ let me put it that way,” Davis said.

Davis has market researchers examining the Vegas market.

“There are a number of companies that do these things for us,” Davis said. “It’s talking with fans, finding out what kind of things they are interested in, whether the demographics fit.”

Davis doesn’t want to rely on fans flying in from Oakland to Las Vegas to fill a stadium in the desert.

“We are not looking to make this something where the fans are going to fly in every weekend for the game,” Davis said. “I know that can happen the first season, but do that 10 games every year might not be a thing that will happen for a lot of people. There will be a lot that will do it, but a lot that won’t, but we want to have a local fan base. That is very important to us.”

While a Raiders move to Vegas seems like a fait accompli, making this happen could take some time.

“We want to do it right, so there is no rush,” Davis said.

Breitbart Sports asked Davis: “Is Oakland attempting to build a new stadium to keep the Raiders?”

“I think you’d have to ask them,” Davis said.

The answer is “no.” So if Las Vegas can work out the financing for a new stadium, there is a great chance the Raiders will move there.