If you're betting on where the Raiders are going to be playing football in five years, you might not want to drop any money on Oakland because it looks like the odds are starting to favor Las Vegas.
For the past four months, Raiders owner Mark Davis has made it clear that he'll be moving his team to Vegas if the city builds him an NFL stadium.
That possibility now seems to be one step closer to reality after the team gave a stadium presentation in front of the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee (SNTIC) on Thursday.
During the presentation, the Raiders -- and their partner, the Sands Casino Group -- made one thing absolutely clear: If the state of Nevada is willing to commit $750 million in public funding towards a new NFL stadium, then the stadium will get built and the Raiders will move to Vegas.
The state of Nevada is willing to commit a lot of public money, but has been hesitant to commit to the $750 million total. The state would rather commit somewhere between $500 and $600 million to the $1.9 billion stadium project.
However, that's not an option, according to Sands president Rob Goldstein.
"Not to be difficult, but we're not negotiable," Goldstein said at the meeting, via the Associated Press. "If we can't get 750 [million], we respectfully thank you but we're going to move on."
The $750 million would be raised by increasing the hotel tax that people pay while staying on the Las Vegas strip.
Of the $1.9 billion in stadium costs, the Raiders and the Sands would team up to cover $1.25 billion. Of that total, the Raiders would chip-in $500 million.
So what exactly does $1.9 billion buy these days?
For the first time, the Raiders unveiled renderings of what their new stadium might look like.
The renderings were released just a few days after the team officially filed for several trademarks on the name "Las Vegas Raiders."
If you feel like you've seen that stadium rendering before, you're not crazy. The Raiders' rendering of their proposed stadium in Carson, Calif., had a similar look.
Apparently, the team liked the look so much that they asked Manica Architecture to incorporate it into the Vegas stadium.
The team also included an eternal flame to honor deceased former owner Al Davis.
There had been an eternal flame in the original design of the Carson stadium, but that idea got scrapped during a later redesign.
Anyway, one question the Raiders and SNTIC came closer to answering on Thursday was the location of the stadium. When talks originally started, there were nine proposed locations. That number has been narrowed down to two.
One location would be directly south of Mandalay Bay hotel.
The other location would be south of Mandalay Bay Hotel, and west of I-15.
If the stadium is going to happen, the state's going to have to OK the $750 million.
For the $750 million to get approved, the SNTIC would have to recommend the stadium plan to the Nevada State Legislature. If that happens, it's pretty much a definite that the legislature will approve the proposal.
The SNTIC has until Sept. 30 to recommend a stadium proposal to the governor's office. The group's original deadline was July 31, but the governor gave the SNTIC a 60-day extension so the group could have more time to consider the nine possible locations for the stadium.
Of course, there's also the possibility that the SNTIC shoots down the funding request. If that happens, the Raiders could end up staying in Oakland or possibly moving to Los Angeles, or moving to some city where Mark Davis has close relatives.
