PHOENIX – The Oakland Raiders will almost certainly abandon the Bay Area for Las Vegas, after National Football League owners approved the public subsidy-laden move Monday.
The league's owners voted overwhelmingly to allow the Raiders to move to Las Vegas, where the state has authorized $750 million of hotel tax-backed bonds to help finance a new venue for the team.
The Raiders are still scheduled to play in Oakland for at least one more season if not more, as the Las Vegas stadium is not slated to be ready until 2020.
Oakland officials and business interests wanted the league to hold off on finalizing the move, pointing out that Oakland now has a plan of finance for a new stadium of its own.
"Never that we know of has the NFL voted to displace a team from its established market when there is a fully-financed option before them with all the issues addressed," Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said prior to the vote. "I'd be remiss if I didn't do everything in my power to make the case for Oakland up until the very end."
The city sent to the league late last week a series of letters and documents outlining a privately financed stadium project headed up by an investment group led by NFL Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott and Fortress Investment Group. Under that plan, the city would be responsible for some $200 million of site improvements and infrastructure improvements to the site, with Fortress kicking in as much as $600 million in addition to other sources of funds.
