Raiders Owner Mark Davis Talks Vegas Move, Naming-Rights Deal

The Raiders and Owner Mark Davis are bidding a final farewell to Oakland this season, and while he is "eager to get settled in his new home," he remains "cognizant of the market he's vacating and the fans he's leaving behind," according to Vincent Bonsignore of THE ATHLETIC. Davis said of the Raiders and Nevada working together on the move, "I've never seen a public/private partnership work so smoothly. People keeping their word, the political process." Davis said securing Allegiant Airlines as the naming rights partner for the team's new stadium is a "milestone but let's get this thing finished, safely." Davis: "Until we're done, we're not celebrating." Davis said ticket sales at Allegiant Stadium are "fantastic" so far. He added, "You didn't really know because people were talking about it being a small market. It's the 40th-biggest television market, it's this and it's that. But goddamn it, there's 43 million people that fly into that city every year. And it's a drive from Los Angeles that people in Southern California are use to making." Meanwhile, Davis said he has not been following the A's ballpark situation "at all," though he added there is a "problem there." Davis: "As far as the players and everybody, we love the A's. We seriously do. But the front office has been real pricks. They've been really fucking around with us up there, taking advantage of the situation" (THEATHLETIC.com, 8/8).