Week #11: Raided yet again

If you missed the news, the Raiders are moving to Las Vegas. The Black Hole is leaving Oakland (again) for a newer, nicer, stadium in the desert. But let's talk about how we got here, and how different this is from the moving of the San Diego Chargers to Los Angeles.

The current Raiders stadium is outdated and old. It needs renovating to keep up with other modern stadiums in the NFL. Owner Mark Davis isn't a multi-billionaire that could finance such a stadium. And the City of Oakland is definitely not paying for it. So the options left are find outside financing for Oakland, for find said financing somewhere else. And unfortunately it was the latter option that won out in the end.

I think it's unsurprising that more and more cities are refusing to put public money into stadiums that they will see no profit from - it makes no sense whatsoever.

Overall I think the Raider Nation will adapt and survive just as it did when they moved to Los Angeles. The Raiders still have an awkward two-to-three years left in Oakland, and with Derek Carr at the helm, it looks like they will be good ones.