If the Oakland Raiders end up making the move to Las Vegas, that move won't happen until 2019 at earliest.
During an interview with ESPN.com on Saturday, Raiders owner Mark Davis revealed that he plans on keeping his team in Oakland for at least two more seasons after 2016.
"We want to bring a Super Bowl championship back to the Bay Area," Davis told ESPN.com.
Davis' comments could turn into a giant slap in the face for the Bay Area if the Raiders were to win a championship after leaving California.
If you're wondering why Oakland would even want to keep the Raiders for two more years if the team decides to move to Vegas, the answer is simple: The city won't have a choice.
The Raiders signed a new lease with Oakland in March that includes team options for both the 2017 and 2018 seasons. Under terms of the lease, the Raiders have the option to leave Oakland after the 2016, 2017 or 2018 season.
That being said, a Las Vegas stadium probably won't be ready until 2020 at the earliest, which means the Raiders would likely have to find a place to play in 2019. That Raiders' tentative options in 2019 could be: Play at Sam Boyd Stadium in Vegas, join the Rams for one season in L.A., stay in Oakland for another season.
Of course, for any of that to happen, the Raiders would have to get approved for relocation, which is no sure thing yet.
As CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora outlined on Sunday, the Raiders might not have the votes they need to pull off a Vegas move. For a team to relocate, they have to have the approval of 24 of the NFL's 32 owners.
"The NFL continues to work diligently behind the scenes to find a new home for the Raiders in the Bay Area," La Canfora wrote. "Davis will need 24 votes to get approval for a move, and ownership sources continue to assert that it's far from certain he will obtain that support."
The reason the NFL wants a team in the Bay Area is because if the Raiders leave Oakland, that leaves the league without a team in one of the country's largest media markets. Obviously, there's the 49ers, but they're located 55 miles away from San Francisco in Santa Clara.
On the other hand, the reason NFL owners might end up approving a Raiders move is involves one thing that the NFL loves: Free money.
The state of Nevada approved funding for a new Vegas stadium on Friday, which means the state will be throwing a $750 million check at the NFL to help out with construction costs on the proposed 65,000 seat, domed-stadium in Las Vegas.
As for Davis, he sounded pretty confident on Friday that his team would end up in Nevada. In a statement released after the stadium funds were approved, the Raiders owner called Vegas a "proud new home" for Raider Nation."
"All parties have worked extremely hard to develop and approve this tremendous stadium project that will serve as a proud new home for the entire Raider Nation," Davis said.
