USA TODAY informal National Football League owners poll gives ‘strong sense’ Raiders to relocate

With NFL owners gathered at the posh Arizona Biltmore Hotel for their annual March meetings, approval this week of the Raiders’ move seems nearly a foregone conclusion. The maverick owner, who died at 82 in 2011, was renowned for his motto: “Just win, baby”.

A three-fourths majority vote is required from the NFL’s 32 league owners to approve the relocation. In his criticism of Oakland’s stadium proposal, Goodell argued that “Key issues that we have identified as threshold considerations are simply not resolvable in a reasonable time”.

The stadium committee represents eight other bellwether franchises, including Pittsburgh Steelers president Art Rooney II (chairman), Arizona Cardinals president Michael Bidwill, Chicago Bears chairman George H. McCaskey, Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder, Minnesota Vikings president and co-owner Mark Wilf, Dallas Cowboys CEO Stephen Jones and San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York.

“At the end of the day, this is the decision of the Raiders and the NFL”, Schaaf said.

Green Bay Packers CEO Mark Murphy said he expects the vote to pass.

The same league that treated Las Vegas with disdain for so many years is ready to embrace it now. Davis was passed over past year when the owners approved the Rams’ relocation and the Chargers exercised their option to join them.

The Raiders have presented a solid application to the National Football League, centered on a stadium proposal in Las Vegas that includes $750 million in public funds for stadium construction. The bill will increase hotel room tax to help finance a $1.9 billion stadium.

“I’m still cautiously optimistic and in fairness, they are taking nothing for granted”, Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak said. “It could not have happened without his political capital”. But he is rooting for the Raiders to remain in Oakland.

Neither Davis nor team President Marc Badain would comment Sunday about whether they believed they had enough votes for approval.

The Raiders’ potential move became more certain earlier this month when Bank of America stepped up with a $650 million loan for Davis.

As part of that vote, the Chargers were given a one-year option to come up with a stadium plan in San Diego, or join Kroenke in Inglewood. In 1995, Davis attempted to build a Raiders stadium in Inglewood just outside of Los Angeles but the league threw up too many barriers and Davis took his business back to Oakland. Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott is involved with the group that proposed the project.

Momentum is building behind the move, which would see the Raiders leave Oakland in 2019, with commissioner Roger Goodell appearing to pour cold water on a last-ditch attempt by the city to keep hold of their team.

The Review-Journal is owned by the family of Las Vegas Sands Corp.