Raiders’ move to Las Vegas comes with benefits and possible pitfalls

PHOENIX — When Mark Davis stood in front of reporters to announce the Raiders’ relocation from Oakland to Las Vegas, he repeatedly called the team’s future home the “entertainment capital of the world.” Not once did he call the site of the Raiders’ future $1.9 billion stadium “Sin City.”

The contrasting nicknames for Las Vegas parallel the pros and cons of the team’s impending move. While there are new opportunities, there are also new challenges ahead for the NFL and the Raiders.

It’s not hard to understand why the Raiders were drawn to the move. The team will join the NHL’s Golden Knights as the first two major professional sports franchises to call one of the most vibrant cities in the United States home. It opens the door to an untapped market that won’t be shared the way the Raiders split the Bay Area with the San Francisco 49ers.

That’s aside from the fact that the move was facilitated by a staggering and record-breaking $750 million in public funding, as well as an additional $200 million for maintenance over the next 30 years.

The Raiders are going to get a world class stadium at an affordable cost in a brand new market all to their own.

The money will be good for players, too. California levies heavy taxes against athletes, and the Raiders’ Rodney Hudson and Dan Williams were two of the top five taxed players in the NFL in 2016. Nevada will be significantly more forgiving.

But the rose of Las Vegas has thorns.

The NFL has long been wary about sports gambling, and about the city of Las Vegas in particular. Even as it embarks on a transition that will put a franchise in the betting hub of the United States, commissioner Roger Goodell is adamant that the league doesn’t support fans placing bets on its games.

“We’ve always said that we are going to maintain the integrity of our game by making sure there is a separation between sports and gambling and the NFL” Goodell told reporters in February. “That is something we think is imperative. We want our fans to know that the game they’re seeing unfold on the field does not have any undue influence.’’

But so what if the NFL doesn’t believe in gambling? It hasn’t stopped Las Vegas casinos from profiting off of NFL bets in the past, and offshore gambling sites have become easy-to-use places for fans to test their wagering luck.

Unless the NFL is so brash as to request the Nevada Gaming Control Board to pull all Raiders games from sportsbooks, the gambling world will be largely unaffected by the relocation.

For the NFL, things could be a bit trickier. The league has tried its best to shield the game from the influences of gambling, hoping to avoid the possibility of bribes to influence the outcome of games. In a 2010 book called The Third Team, Richard Lister detailed all the rules officials are forced to adhere to, via Football Zebras:

NFL officials are not allowed to step foot into Las Vegas or Atlantic City during the NFL season. In the offseason the officials must notify the league within 24 hours of having frequented a casino. Officials are forbidden from betting on all team sports. Each official is given a list of bars and other establishments in each NFL city where there is known gambling activity, legal or otherwise, and that official is forbidden from patronizing that establishment.

The rules will have to be adjusted with a franchise in Las Vegas, but do they even matter? Anyone with an internet connection can place a bet and seedy back alley bribes were a legitimate concern 100 years ago, but any hypothetical offer today could happen just as easily through a direct message on Twitter.

Still, the NFL’s tight leash on officials will be tougher to maintain, as will the teams’ control over players.

The Raiders will soon have to hope a roster with young millionaires will responsibly dedicate their time to football and not the distractions of Las Vegas. Even visiting teams are already contemplating how they’ll handle away games against the Raiders.

But the reality is that it’s likely an overblown dilemma. While Las Vegas is famous for its temptations, players seeking for nightlife can find it in New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and other NFL cities too.

Ultimately though, Las Vegas offers challenges that Oakland never did. The amount of money available to all parties made the risk worthwhile, but it comes with risk all the same.