Oakland Raiders At Least 50 Percent Committed To Vegas

The Oakland Raiders moving to Las Vegas remains a very real threat, and there is growing belief it will happen.

It always seems to be a messy situation when the Raiders think about moving.  Aside from angering the loyal fans in Oakland, they just can’t seem to make a smooth transition of it.  Back in the 1980s, Al Davis waged a war with the NFL over his right to move the team without needing their permission to do so.  This time it was flirting with the idea of Los Angeles, and has since evolved into the idea of giving Sin City its first-ever professional sports franchise.

At first most believed it was just a squeeze play by team ownership in order to secure the funding for a new stadium, something they felt was long overdue.  Now there is a growing belief the idea of a move has morphed from threat to legitimate reality.

"“As the months have passed since, and as the NFL’s dance with Vegas continued, people began to tell me the odds were increasing, like a thermometer reading from the fall to the spring. The percentages of the chances rose from 0 to 10, then 10 to 20, then higher.Then just recently, in a conversation with an NFL owner about the Raiders and Vegas, I heard something that clarified just how far this has come. This owner said the percentage of the Raiders moving to Vegas “is now 50 percent—and maybe as high as 75.”"

That is not the news Oakland fans want to hear, but such is the case.  The NFL seems intent on a shakeup of its current structure. Las Vegas represents an as-yet untapped money market they’ve wanted to get into for some time.  The Raiders are a team ready and willing to exploit it, just as the Rams were in their return to Los Angeles.  Seems rather unfair too considering they appear ready to finally break out of their long drought of no playoff football since 2002.

A solution may yet be found to prevent this, but unless something significant changes this train may not be able to shift tracks.