The Raiders head to Sin City
Last Monday, the Oakland Raiders shocked many by announcing their relocation to Las Vegas, Nevada. Fans of the team were caught off guard by this announcement, with some showing support and others reacting negatively. It is no secret that the NFL is a business with its revenue close to 13 billion dollars last year. So, for many, this move is seen simply as an opportunistic business decision made by a profit-seeking firm. Indeed, the team is named after armed plunderers who forsake morality and community in search of profit. For others, this move is a betrayal in which a local institution abandoned the city that loves it so deeply. The NFL is becoming more and more of a money machine and less of an institution that cares for their loyal fans.
Brandon Marshall, a wide receiver for the New York Giants, spoke to The Palm Beach Post about the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas and said, “I think it could be a tough place for a kid coming out of college, so that locker room has to be strong, because there’s so much there, there’s access to so much. It’s a Strip but it’s really big and it can be overwhelming at times for young, immature players. That’s my thoughts on Las Vegas.” This concern is shared by many. Will the players of this team stay focused on their careers and help turn Las Vegas into a professional sports town and not just a party town? Or will the endless parties and nightlife be a major distraction for the Raiders? Only time will tell.
The Raiders are coming to Vegas from Oakland, a densely populated city in the Bay Area. The Bay Area currently has a population of over 7.5 million people with almost 400,000 of those living in the city of Oakland. Las Vegas has a total population of 600,000 people and the difference in the sizes of the populations is not something to be overlooked. The Oakland Raiders have one of the most dedicated fan bases in the world with 50,000 season tickets being sold out of the 53,000 that were available for the 2016- 2017 NFL season. When asked about playing in Oakland, Marshall said, “I love the Black Hole. Before every game I would run to the Black Hole and I would throw trash at ‘em and water bottles and they would throw ‘em back and that got me going, that was my juice for the game.” There is something special about the atmosphere that the Raiders are able to produce in Oakland. So where will they find the fan base they need to make Las Vegas a similar success? Of course there will be many Las Vegas based fans and fans of the Oakland team flying in for the games, but Las Vegas is known for being a world famous tourist destination. According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, almost 43 million people visited Vegas in 2016 compared to the 25.1 million people that visited the Bay Area. It is safe to say that when looking at these numbers the move to Vegas does have the potential to make this team a tourist attraction.
The only indicator that the Raiders have about the enthusiasm of sports fans in Las Vegas comes from numbers provided by the Vegas Golden Knights, an NHL team set to make their debut in Vegas during the 2017-2018 NHL season. The Knights reported to NHL.com that they have received deposits on all 16,000 season tickets that are available for their opening season. NHL.com reported that “More than 5,000 tickets were sold within two days and 9,000 season tickets were sold within a month of the launch”. With these numbers, comes some sense of security as there is clearly traction for professional sports in Sin City.
I also want to touch on what this means for the world of television and the media that so closely follows the Oakland Raiders. According to Cleveland.com, Las Vegas is currently ranked No.40 in the top United States television markets, while the Bay Area (San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose) comes in at No.6. Clearly, there is a lot of work that needs to be done on bringing Las Vegas up in that ranking in order to continue to drawn in huge amounts of viewers for the Raiders and to make this move a successful business decision.
No one knows exactly what this move will do for the team, but, as Brandon Marshall said, “This is the entertainment business, so business has to be done.” Business has indeed been done, and the Raiders will start playing in the Entertainment Capital of the World in 2020.