Owners at the NFL's Spring meeting in Phoenix just voted 31-1 to approve the Oakland Raiders' proposed move to Las Vegas. Miami was the only team to vote no. The Raiders and Oakland can now likely look forward to two awkward seasons together as the Raiders lease continues through this year, and includes a club option for the next year. The proposed $1.7 billion stadium in Vegas won't be ready until 2020, which means the Raiders will need to figure out where to play in 2019.The vote came days after the city of Oakland tried to keep the Raiders in town, announcing details for a $1.3 billion mixed-use stadium. Commissioner Roger Goodell responded on Friday, via a letter to Mayor Libby Schaaf, essentially telling the Mayor that she can take her bad plan and kick rocks. In it, Goodell said the plan "confirms that key issues that we have identified as threshold considerations are simply not resolvable in the short term. In that respect, the information sent today does not present a proposal that is clear and specific, actionable in a reasonable timeframe, and free of major contingencies."Chief among those key issues is the Oakland Athletics' role as co-tenant. Goodell and the NFL want the Raiders in their own stadium and it's unclear whether Oakland can make that happen. "We also accept," Goodell wrote, "that you do not wish to exercise (and may not be able to exercise) the contractual termination rights related to the A's."So now, the franchise belongs to Las Vegas, even though that didn't even look like a done deal just a few short months ago. Back in January, filthy rich casino CEO Sheldon Adelson pulled out of a financing deal with the Raiders, and Goldman Sachs pulled out of the deal a day later. On March 7th, however, things were looking up because the Raiders secured $650 million from Bank of America. That, coupled with the $750 million in public funds Nevada already voted to provide for the stadium, was enough for 31 rich dudes to rubber stamp the fleecing of two municipalities.When they finally do become the Las Vegas Raiders, they will become the third team in fours years to relocate, joining the Rams, who moved from St. Louis to Los Angeles in 2016, and the San Diego Chargers who also left for Los Angeles in January.
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