Davis in the desert: Why Vegas suits the Raiders

The resurgence of the Oakland Raiders as a legitimate contender in the NFL seems nigh, with the Silver and Black notching an impressive 7-2 record heading into the second half of the season. However, for as much success as the Raiders are enjoying, a dark spectre looms over the Oakland Coliseum by the bay, the future of the franchise hanging in the balance.

With the Rams enjoying their first season back in Los Angeles since departing St. Louis (yes even despite their spotty performances),  all eyes are on Raiders’ owner Mark Davis as he considers a potential relocation of the team to Las Vegas. Perhaps a year ago the idea of Las Vegas, the city of sin, hosting an NFL franchise seemed laughable. Serious issues, not the least of which being Nevada’s sports gambling laws and the potential damage they could inflict on the NFL’s image, seemed to present immovable obstacles to any team wanting to call Las Vegas home.

However, as the playoffs quickly approach, it seems more and more likely that a move to Vegas for one of the NFL’s most storied franchise is on the cards. Perhaps the Raiders likely return to postseason football this year will be in the form of a swan song to the city that birthed them. Indeed, it is hard to imagine the Raiders not being in Oakland. A tough, blue-collar city reflected in its football team. A symbiotic relationship in which the Raiders, forever the renegades, played rough, physical, in your face football, sharing an equal disdain for opponents and officials alike. They were the embodiment of a city that didn’t care what you thought about them.

How then could the glitz and glamour of Vegas be a fit for the Raiders? Upon closer inspection, it seems that The Las Vegas Raiders might not just be a possibility, but rather a match made in heaven.

The single main driving force behind the Raiders potential move to Las Vegas is the condition of their stadium. The Oakland Coliseum is one of the oldest stadiums in the NFL, originally built in 1966, the Coliseum is 50 this year. Unlike Soldier Field in Chicago or Lambeau Field in Green Bay, the Coliseum has not stood the test of time, nor has it been the beneficiary of successful refurbishments and renovation.

The deteriorating stadium is miles away from what has become the NFL standard. During an Athletic’s game in 2013 the visiting Seattle Mariners had to share the Raiders upstairs locker room with the A’s due to a massive sewage backup in the floors below. Coexisting in the Coliseum with the A’s has come with other caveats for the Raiders as well. Most notable is the baseball diamond that extends over the football field during the first half of the season. The dirt has had a direct impact on the players, and not just running or being tackled on a baseball dirt mound, but more crucially the execution of field goals. Just ask Sebastian Janikowski if he enjoys kicking a 50-yarder from second base.

Las Vegas presents a solution to this consistent problem. If the Raiders do move to Nevada they wouldn’t be occupying an existing stadium after the first two years or so. Their eventual permanent home in Las Vegas would be a brand new, 65,000 seat domed stadium home only to themselves. Two proposed sites, one near Mandalay Bay and a second alternative on top of the Bali Hai Golf Club, mean that the new stadium would be ideally located near the Vegas strip, yet still stand on its own as a key feature of the Vegas skyline.

The Raiders have relocated twice before. They moved to Los Angeles in 1982, before heading back to Oakland in 1995. Both of these moves were motivated by stadium issues.  When then owner Al Davis moved the Raiders to LA, he was seduced by visions of luxury suites and corporate boxes, and a failure to provide these to the Raiders as promised (not to mention a growing sense of indifference to the Raiders in LA) led to Davis’ eventual return to Oakland, and re-acquaintance with a Coliseum that has never been a premium NFL venue.

A new stadium in Vegas would give the Raiders what they have been searching for, for nearly 40 years now.

What about the Raider image? The swashbuckling renegade, eye patch on one side of his face, the embodiment of Oakland’s blue-collar image? Las Vegas actually suits the well-known Raider “mystique” better than most realise.

Las Vegas itself is a town that screams renegade. The casinos, the strip, the bars, all attest to the idea that Vegas is more alive, more glamorous than the rest of America. It’s a city that does things differently, it isn’t your Denver, it isn’t your Chicago or your San Francisco. Vegas is fast and energetic, like the Raiders football philosophy of old. Davis himself was a pioneer of the vertical game, arguing that a team should stretch the field, look not for first downs but for touchdowns. “Take what we want” was the mantra for this mindset. It’s a paradigm that lends itself to doubling down, putting it all on black (and silver).

Perhaps its in this way that the Raiders could be a reflection of Vegas in the same way they reflected Oakland in its heydays. The Derek Carr Amari Cooper connection is as electric as it comes (heck their nickname is AC/DC), and a Khalil Mack sack off the edge would be like losing it all red. The new Raiders are exciting and intoxicating, just like Vegas.

In fact, the late Al Davis himself took quite the liking to Las Vegas. Al was known to host rambunctious 4th of July  birthday parties in Vegas, and former Raiders quarterback David Humm declared that Al “loved this town” according to Norm Clarke of the Las Vegas Journal. Humm went so far as to say that “He would have loved to have moved the Raiders here, he told me that many times.”

Finally, Las Vegas offers the Raiders an opportunity to become something Al always wanted them to be. A true global brand. The Raiders move to LA will be remembered for many things, one of which is the less than average crowd attendance at home games. Al believed that the Raiders sold themselves, and so refused to do any marketing in LA. But in the entertainment capital of the world, marketing was an absolute must. It’s why despite being in Hollywood, the Raiders never truly took off as a world renown team like the Packers or the 49ers or today’s Patriots.

Las Vegas’ reliance on tourism could change all that. A trip to a Raiders game could well become the staple of any international tourist’s visit to the city, especially for those with families. The plethora of international visitors to both Vegas and Raiders games would mean that the brand would be carried overseas in a way it hasn’t been before. The Raiders would also be the first and only major league sports team in Las Vegas. They would own the city, and more than likely wouldn’t have to worry about crowd attendance or local support.

We will certainly have to wait to be sure, but it seems that Vegas is a place that the Raiders would be well suited to and more than happy to call home.