The Raiders and family of Las Vegas Sands Chair & CEO Sheldon Adelson have "begun fine-tuning details of a stadium development deal they will present" to the NFL and the Las Vegas Stadium Authority, according to Richard Velotta of the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL. The team also "reiterated assurances that its focus is on relocating the team to Las Vegas" and that the stadium proposal being touted by Ronnie Lott's group "isn’t economically viable." Las Vegas Sands Senior VP/Government Relations & Community Development Andy Abboud said that at a meeting last Thursday in Las Vegas, Raiders execs and several Adelson family members, including Sheldon Adelson, "discussed details from stadium naming rights to parking revenue to locker-room design." Clark County Commission Chair Steve Sisolak said that the meeting was "conducted in Adelson’s office at The Venetian" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 12/17).
HERE'S THE PITCH: CBSSPORTS.com's Jason La Canfora reported the NFL made a "strong pitch to owners on the virtues of the Oakland market at last week's league meetings, presenting a case to counter the Raiders' intended move." Sources said that NFL Exec VP/Business Ventures Eric Grubman "presented data from a detailed market study indicating that Oakland is a far superior market to Vegas," while Raiders execs "pointed to two of their own studies that sought to discount that data and highlight the strength of Las Vegas." Sources said that Grubman's study compared Oakland and Las Vegas to other existing markets and showed the "average NFL market was given an overall rating 68; Oakland, a far superior TV market, scored a 70, according to those figures, while Vegas was just a 60 on this scale." Raiders President Marc Badain was "critical of the league's study during the session." One source said, "Badain basically stood up and said the league's study was BS. And he had two of his studies that looked nothing like the one Grubman presented" (CBSSPORTS.com, 12/18).
BYE BYE BAY? In S.F., Matier & Ross noted Oakland and Alameda County officials are "stinging from the NFL’s swift rebuke of the Raiders stadium deal they put on the table -- but they aren’t budging" from their $350M pledge of public support. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said, "We have not made great progress in Oakland. We need to continue to work at it." Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty said, "I disagree. What the NFL did was kick the Raiders fans right in the gut" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 12/18). A LAS VEGAS SUN editorial stated by all "indications at this point, league owners would be misguided not to allow the Raiders to move." The editorial: "The biggest difference between the two deals? The one here is more concrete." It would appear that for NFL owners, a "sticking point is whether Las Vegas would be a good market for a team." A Las Vegas team "wouldn’t need to rely on a local fan base as much as the Packers, Jaguars, Bills and Saints, and the reason is that those teams aren’t playing in places that draw 42 million-plus visitors." It is "not a huge stretch to think fans in other NFL cities would circle their team’s games in Las Vegas on their calendars and travel here for a party weekend on those dates" (LAS VEGAS SUN, 12/18). In Oakland, Jerry McDonald wrote this is a "poker game that could take until March to sort out." NFL owners "have to determine how comfortable they are both with playing in Vegas and with Adelson’s potential presence in the league’s power structure" (EASTBAYTIMES.com, 12/17).
