On March 27, the NFL approved the Oakland Raider’s move to their Las Vegas stadium, making the move from Oakland official.
At the owner’s meeting in Arizona on March 26-29, the team owners voted in favor of the move 31-1.
The Raider’s are currently using the Oakland Coliseum, and their lease is due to expire in 2018. They are planning to start playing in Las Vegas in 2019 in temporary quarters. The team is expected to move into their $2 billion stadium in 2020.
The Raider’s have a strong fan base in Oakland, and many fans are outraged by this decision. According to The New York Times, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf believes that the team is an integral part of the Oakland community.
“The Raider nation is the last of the blue-collar, salt-of-the-earth fan bases, and it absolutely breaks my heart to lose this team,” Schaaf said.
According to 95.7 The Game, Mark Davis, the Raider’s principal owner, is looking forward to the move, but feels that it is bittersweet because of the many upset fans.
“I’m not celebrating anything like I would like to be,” Davis said. “We are going to be building a world-class stadium in the entertainment capitol of the world. It’s going to be great for Super Bowls and everything else. But I still have a feeling for the fans in the Bay Area. And I’ve met with a number of them. And anything I say to them isn’t going to soothe them, and it makes this whole thing bittersweet.”
