7. Raiders should move to Vegas immediately
Remember the Houston Oilers’ final season in Texas before they became the Tennessee Titans? It was a joke. The team was a laughingstock. And in reality, it was a black eye for the NFL. Now, look at how things ended up last season for the Chargers in San Diego after it became apparent they were relocating to Los Angeles. Just ask Philip Rivers how much of an embarrassment that was.
Davis has left open the possibility of the team remaining in Oakland until its new venue is built in Vegas in time for the 2020 season.
“If the fans would like us to stay there,” Davis said, via CSN Bay Area, “we’d love to be there for that and possibly talk to them about extending it for maybe 2019 as well and try to bring a championship back to Oakland.”
That’s technically an option, but can we really expect fans in Northern California to spends thousands on season tickets only to realize there’s no long-term future for the team in that region? Throughout the history of professional sports, this has not worked out. Heck, we can look at the Seattle Sonics in the NBA as well as the Montreal Expos in MLB. More often than not, it’s proven to be an utter failure.
On the other hand, the Raiders surely have an out here. They have reportedly been in talks with UNLV about potentially playing at Sam Boyd Stadium for the next few seasons (more on that here).
While a 45,000-plus seat college venue has its drawbacks, at least the Raiders will be playing in their long-term home city. Heck, it’s a much sexier option than where the Chargers are slated to play over the next couple seasons.
At this point, Davis and Co. should just move on from the idea of playing in Oakland over the next three seasons. Nothing good will come of it. And if history tells us anything, it will be a black eye for both the Raiders and the NFL as a whole.