Days after the Chargers announced they were leaving San Diego for Los Angeles, the Raiders are planning to file relocation paperwork to move from Oakland to Las Vegas, according to NFL.com's Ian Rapoport.
The move could be made official in the coming days and the Raiders would need 23 votes from the other NFL owners to formally make the move.
Rapoport adds that there have been no credible stadium proposals put forward by the city of Oakland and it's only a matter of time before the Raiders pack up and leave town.
As always, this is about stadium funding. If Oakland can't make it happen, then the question becomes how will a new stadium get built in Las Vegas. In September, a Nevada oversight committee approved a $750 million public funding plan for a Las Vegas Raiders stadium. And in August, the Raiders released renderings of the $1.9 billion stadium. Here's what CBSSports.com's John Breech wrote at the time: "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."
But the Raiders don't need the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, where Sheldon Adelson is the chair CEO. According to the Bay Area News Group, the Raiders have informed league officials "they have commitments from Goldman Sachs to finance a proposed $1.9 billion Las Vegas stadium project even without the help of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson."
Logistical hurdles remain
"It is not one hurdle, it is a series of events, all of which have to take place in order to create a situation where an NFL team could be playing in southern Nevada in 2020," Applied Analysis' Jeremy Aguero, who is working in conjunction with the Las Vegas Stadium Authority, told the Bay Area News Group.
Still, Raiders owner Mark Davis seems set on bringing the team to the Nevada desert. According to CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora, Davis vowed at last month's league meetings that any lingering issues between him and outside developers and financiers would be resolved long before any relocation vote.
"Basically, Mark was just pretty much saying, 'We're going, we're going, we're going,'" a source present at the meetings told La Canfora.
The owners could vote on the issue at the league meetings in March.