Pro Football HOFer Ronnie Lott yesterday "urged supporters" to keep "pressuring NFL owners in a last-ditch effort to stop the Raiders from moving to Las Vegas," according to Elliott Almond of the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS. Lott spoke to "about 100 fans" gathered at the Oakland Airport Hilton hotel to protest against relocation. Lott, the "face of a private investment proposal" to build a $1.3B stadium at the current Oakland Alameda-County Coliseum site, spoke "for only two minutes." Lott: "I am saluting you for your efforts, saluting you for being here, saluting you for [late Raiders Owner Al] Davis, Mark Davis and his family ... Keep up the fight, I appreciate it" (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 3/13).
ROCK THE VOTE: The Raiders need 24 "yes" votes from NFL owners to move from Oakland, and in Las Vegas, Ed Graney examined which of the 32 owners at this point could be "hard no votes." The one thing in Mark Davis' "favor is that the NFL no longer is run by its old guard." The most powerful owners "love, more than anything else, live money." Graney: "Las Vegas has it." Owners also "love access to foreign money, defined by those high-rollers spending large chunks of it up and down the Strip." Influential owners "realize that when market size is mentioned as a possible impediment to the deal, TV sets no longer are as great a driving force in a time when things are transitioning into all matters internet." Some believe the Steelers "might be a no vote given the Rooney family's long-standing bitterness about having to divest gambling interests years ago." Graney wonders if Cardinals Owner Bill Bidwill would "vote against the Raiders purely for geographical reasons" or if an "ultraconservative" such as Bengals Owner Mike Brown would "frown on a Las Vegas team?" Discovering nine teams who could "vote against the Las Vegas deal is more difficult than not" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 3/12).
GOLD, JERRY? The REVIEW-JOURNAL's Graney noted were the Raiders to land a stadium deal, the Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board would not control "aspects such as management to concessions to hospitality to various other areas of the stadium." Those "eventually could be handled" by Legends Hospitality, which Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones owns a stake in. Graney: "The team will decide who manages the stadium, which means you have to love Jones' chances of landing the contract" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 3/10).
