What Happened to the Raiders Relocation to Las Vegas?
Two weeks ago, the Oakland Raiders presented a Las Vegas stadium plan to the NFL Owners Stadium Committee in New York. Team officials told the public that Goldman Sachs “guaranteed” the proposal.
Jeremy Aguero of Applied Analysis spoke with the team after the meeting. Later, he stated this to the Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board.
“The team’s presentation highlighted its research that the Las Vegas market can support the team, that bringing the NFL to the market aligns with the league’s strategic goals and that Goldman Sachs is committed to financing the project with or without a third party.”
“The Raiders told the committees that there is no deal in place yet with the Adelson family and that the team is pursuing approval with no third-party involvement.” “However, if an accord with the Adelson family is reached later, the team would bring that back for league approval.”
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Initially, NFL Owners seemed pleased with the presentation.
Fast forward to last week, and the Raiders presented a proposed lease agreement, for the team only, to the Stadium Authority Board.
“We recognize that there’s a lot of work to do here.” Raiders Executive Vice President Dan Ventrelle told the board. “As much as we’d like to take it a step at a time, we have to dual-track a lot of that work, so we’ve tried to move forward.”
However, it now appears the Raiders will attempt to move forward without Sheldon Adelson. This is the statement released by the Adelson Family,
“The Oakland Raiders came before the Las Vegas Stadium Authority last week with a proposed lease agreement that has sent shock waves through our community. It was certainly shocking to the Adelson family. We were not only excluded from the proposed agreement; we weren’t even aware of its existence.
In addition:
“In addition to being discouraged by the surprise submission, I was deeply disappointed for the disregard the Raiders showed our community partners, particularly UNLV, through the proposed agreement.
“It’s clear the Raiders have decided their path for moving to Las Vegas does not include the Adelson family.”
In spite of the announcement of the Adelson withdrawal , thoughts remained that the deal would progress, due Goldman Sachs’ “guaranteed”. Meaning, the financial backing of the Las Vegas Stadium with or without a 3rd party according to team sources, per Jeremy Aguero above.
However, after speaking with officials, under the request of anonymity, they stated Goldman Sachs “Guarantee” is in a deal with Sheldon Adelson, and there’s no deal in place with the Raiders without Sheldon Adelson.
Another official confirmed that and said “Negotiations are continuing, and will be the number one topic among the NFL and league owners in Houston at the Super Bowl. In speaking with various Las Vegas officials off the record, a few believe that the deal is too far long to abandon.
Although, it appears the Raiders pulled the cord on their Goldman Sachs Golden Parachute.
Goldman Sachs declined to comment for this article.
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