Now that the Oakland Raiders have an investor lined up for their still hypothetical new stadium in Las Vegas, it appears that the NFL is about to fast-track its approval.
According to a report from the venerable Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times, NFL owners will vote on relocation at their annual meetings later this month.
That’s not necessarily a surprise. It has been long expected that a vote would take place in March. Though, this was thrown into question earlier in the year when Las Vegas Sands Corp. CEO Sheldon Adelson pulled out as a $650 million investor in the $1.9 billion stadium project (more on that here).
Despite this, the banking giant Bank of America decided to fill the void when it was announced on Monday that the company would take over Adelson’s role as the biggest investor in the project.
This now seems to be enough for NFL owners to support the Raiders’ relocation to the desert metropolis later in the month.
Have heard from 4 owners now on #Raiders/Vegas. Appears all momentum is toward owners approving the relocation, even if they don't want to.
— Jason Cole (@JasonCole62) March 7, 2017
There’s been some minor push back from within the league. But the Raiders themselves viewed approval as inevitable if they had investors lined up. With $750 million in public funds already approved and Bank of America on board, it’s now a foregone conclusion that the Raiders will be relocating from Northern California here in the not-so-distant future.