As talk heats up that the Raiders will leave Oakland and move to Las Vegas, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is sounding a more cautious note.
Sunday night in Minnesota, Goodell said the Vikings are the franchise he’d like to see other teams with difficult stadium situations to model. The Vikings worked with the local community to get a replacement for the Metrodome built, rather than leaving, and Goodell said he wouldn’t want to see the Raiders leave Oakland again, as they did once before for their stint in Los Angeles.
“Well, you never want to see a community lose their franchise once, much less twice. The Minnesota community did that in a great way. I think we can do it in Oakland. I think there’s a solution there, but it takes the community to help identify it,” Goodell said.
Of course, the NFL has allowed communities to lose franchises twice: St. Louis lost both the Cardinals and the Rams. So it wouldn’t be unprecedented for the Raiders to vacate Oakland twice. But Goodell said the recent authorization of a new stadium in Las Vegas isn’t enough to bring the Raiders to town.
“There’s still a lot that has to happen before we would get to that stage. Recognizing that they came out of committee with a bill, but there’s still a lot of work to be done to improve that recommendation,” Goodell said.
Raiders owner Mark Davis seems like he wants to move to Las Vegas, but he needs the permission of 23 of his fellow owners to do so. Goodell doesn’t sound so sure that the owners will go along with a move, at least not before more work is done.