Top eight takeways from Raiders’ relocation to Las Vegas

5. Vegas can house an NFL team

There’s a common misconception that the Las Vegas area cannot house an NFL team. That the market is too small. That the transient population doesn’t have the economic means or the long-term interest to support this endeavor.

That’s all fine and dandy. It’s also logic based on ignorance more than anything else.

Like other sprawling hubs built up in the desert (looking at you Arizona), we simply can’t just take into account the demographics of the city itself. It’s all about master-built suburbs. In Nevada, that includes the state’s second-largest city. Henderson is a 15-minute drive to the strip and includes a population where the average household income is $63,000.

Add in the lower cost of living compared to Northern California, and there’s a lot of money there for fans to commit to season tickets. The Vegas metropolitan area is also a growing community with the potential for extensive population growth in the coming years. I covered all this in another article earlier in the year (more on that here).

We’ve seen it in Henderson as well as Summerlin (one of the most affluent communities in the western United States). The population in that newly-formed community (25,000 people) remains relatively low, but the average household income is nearing six figures. Add in the fact that there’s no state income tax, and this is all brought to a new level.

As these communities continue to be inundated with a more affluent transient population, the market viability of the Las Vegas area itself will increase. Add in the intense yearning for professional sports in this metropolis, and that’s magnified further.

When we include that fact that Vegas is a three-hour drive from Los Angeles and a 90-minute flight from Oakland International Airport, all this makes too much sense. The desert metropolis surely has the market viability to house an NFL team. Period.