As the Raiders move toward a vote on their proposed move out of Oakland, a key piece of information has emerged regarding the looming relocation process.
Via Peter King of TheMMQB.com, the Raiders will pay a transfer fee in the range of $325 million to $375 million in connection with the jump from Oakland to Las Vegas.
As King notes, that’s considerably less than the $650 million paid separately by the Rams and the Chargers to move to L.A. And it could up being a bargain. One owner suggested to King that, within the next decade to 15 years, “you’ll see the Raiders doing better than at least one of the l.A. teams and potentially both L.A. teams.”
That’s likely correct, in part because the Raiders quite likely will become more popular in L.A. than the Rams or the Chargers, given the relatively short trip via car (roughly four hours) and even shorter by plane from the City of Angels to the City of Sin.
The transfer fee, based on the NFL’s relocation policy, is supposedly determined by factors that include the new income streams, the team’s existing income streams, expenses to be incurred by the team in the new location versus the current location, the desirability of the team’s current stadium and proposed stadium as the location for NFL games, the team’s status under any existing revenue sharing plans and changes to that in the new city, the impact of the move on current and anticipated revenue streams at the league level, and the demographics of the team’s old and new markets.
With all those variables, it’s hard to understand how the Rams and Chargers ended up paying PRECISELY the same amount to move from St. Louis and San Diego, respectively, to Los Angeles. It’s either quite a coincidence or (further) proof that there’s a disconnect between the words the league puts on paper and the NFL doing what it wants to do.
When it comes to the Raiders moving to Las Vegas there are still plenty of details to be addressed (and one fairly large detail that has been largely ignored). Ultimately, all that matters is what the league wants to do. If the league wants the Raiders out of Oakland and in Las Vegas, then that’s what will happen — regardless of whether dropping 60-some twentysomethings into the heart of the nation’s No. 1 gambling destination will lead to outcomes far more troubling than some dude with a credential stealing jerseys from a locker room.