Football fans in Downtown Las Vegas have mixed feelings on Raiders’ move
Soon after the vote of the NFL owners was finalized allowing the team to move, The D Hotel in downtown Las Vegas was already welcoming the Raiders to Las Vegas on its displays.
Tourists and locals enjoying the Fremont Street Experience on Monday afternoon were not all as happy about the soon-to-be Las Vegas Raiders.
John Kauffmann, a resident of Alameda, California, just a 10-minute drive from Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, hopes Mark Davis’ team can find happiness with its new suitor.
“I just hope Vegas treats them well,” he said. “We’ll miss them.”
It’s a feeling three fan bases in the Natonal Football League have felt within the last 15 months as the Rams and Chargers have both moved to Los Angeles prior to the Raiders move being made official by the NFL owners.
Not all Bay Area natives were as melancholy about the news. One man, who grew up in the Bay Area but recently moved to Henderson, was pleased to see his team follow him to Las Vegas.
“We just moved out here a few weeks ago from the Bay Area, so a lot of our friends back home are really angry,” Ernesto Burke said. “But we couldn’t be happier about it.”
And others still, like Summerlin resident Dominick Webb, are just happy to see another professional sports team in Las Vegas for more selfish reasons.
“I had no horse in the race, since I’m a Cowboys fan, but I’m glad to see an NFL team in the area,” he said. “Can’t wait to see my ‘Boys out here.”
The trend of teams looking to move or asking their cities for money to renovate their stadiums has increased in recent years. Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves will play in a new suburban ballpark this season after living in Turner Field for fewer than 20 years. The Arizona Coyotes of the National Hockey League moved into Gila River Arena (then Glendale Arena) in 2003 and are already working toward a new arena deal. And the Chargers are moving from San Diego to Los Angeles with a detour in Carson, California. There have been similar examples recently in every major sports league in the country.
Some fans are getting frustrated with the constant instability.
“I don’t like these teams holding cities over the barrel and moving around just to make a little more money,” Sammy Erickson of Seattle said. “They don’t think about what it does to the loyal fan base they’ve built up for years.”
Jimmy Blake, a Raiders fan from Fresno, California, puts all of his blame and frustration onto the shoulders of Raiders owner Mark Davis.
“It’s all money. I know it’s a business, but I can’t believe Mark Davis would do this to us. They belong in Oakland,” he said. “They are celebrating here, but it’s a bad day for Raider Nation.”
Luckily for the Raiders fans in and around Oakland, they will have a couple more years to watch their team play at the Coliseum. That fact was at least a silver lining for Nancy Barnett from Fremont, California.
“I didn’t know until a few minutes ago they were still going to be in Oakland for a little while longer,” she said. “I’ll need to bring the kids to the Black Hole before they abandon us for Sin City.”
Las Vegas locals celebrated as the news spread of the Raiders impending move to the area. But clearly not everyone in town when the news broke was happy about it.
“Apparently, there are a lot of Raider fans already living here, but it still sucks” Arnold Payne of Fresno said. “I’ve been a fan my whole life, so seeing them leave Oakland is a tough pill to swallow.”
Contact reporter Bill Slane at bslane@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4559. Follow @bill_slane on Twitter.
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