The city of Los Vegas is laying the groundwork for the possible relocation of an NFL team to the desert region.
According to a report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal (h/t Pro Football Talk), an 83-question survey has been sent out to over 10,000 people in the local region attempting to acquire an understanding of where citizens stand on potential relocation of the Oakland Raiders to Sin City.
This comes as a debate heats up in the region about just how much taxpayer money should be used to finance a potential new venue for the Raiders. The existing plan calls for $750 million while at least one high-ranking official is suggesting this number drop by $200 million.
The entire idea of the Raiders moving to Vegas has picked up a ton of steam in recent months with some heavy hitters within the NFL’s ownership ranks lending their support to the idea (more on that here).
It also comes with Raiders owner Mark Davis suggesting that talks of relocation aren’t a ploy to get a new venue built in Northern California.
We’ve seen this dog and pony show from Davis before, the most-recent example being a league-wide winter meeting that approved the Rams relocation plan from St. Louis to Los Angeles over the Raiders’ plan with the San Diego Chargers.
Though, something definitely does feel different about this current situation. We already know the Raiders current stadium issue simply isn’t sustainable much longer. We also know that Vegas has become a reliable option for the professional sports world.
It will definitely be interesting to see what type of answers we get from the survey. With the potential of $750 million in taxpayer cash being considered to build the new venue, public opinion surely does matter.