June 23, 1995: Raiders leave Los Angeles to move back to Oakland for a renovated Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
July 29, 2014: Mark Davis, who inherited the team following his father’s death in 2011, confirmed he talked to San Antonio officials about moving the team to Texas.
Feb. 20, 2015: Raiders and San Diego Chargers announced plans for a new stadium complex in Carson, California, a suburb of Los Angeles.
April 15, 2015: The stadium plan for the Chargers and Raiders collects enough petition signatures to go before the city council.
May 19, 2015: The transaction for a land deal of 170 acres closes in Carson, paving the way for a football stadium to be built. The project awaits approval from the NFL.
Oct. 30, 2015: Davis tells Oakland town hall that he is committed to finding a stadium solution in Oakland if a stadium can be built.
Jan. 4, 2016: After talks for a new stadium go nowhere, the Raiders, along with the Rams and Chargers, file paperwork to relocate to Los Angeles.
Jan. 12, 2016: The NFL relocation committee votes to back the Raiders-Chargers plan for Carson in the morning.
Jan. 12, 2016: In the afternoon, the NFL owners vote to allow the Rams to move to Los Angeles from St. Louis and give the Chargers first option as a second team in the Rams’ new stadium if they choose to leave San Diego within a year. The Raiders are allotted second option after the Chargers.
Jan. 14, 2016: Former Minnesota Vikings owner Red McCombs, a longtime San Antonio resident, renews his pitch for the Raiders to move to the Texas city.
Jan. 24, 2016: ESPN reports Raiders are open to moving to San Diego if L.A. option falls through.
Jan. 26, 2016: Multiple reports say the Raiders have begun work on a one-year lease with O.co Coliseum in Oakland.
Jan. 28, 2016: Mark Davis is scheduled to meet with Las Vegas Sands Corp. president Sheldon Adelson about moving the Raiders to a proposed domed stadium near the Strip.
April 28, 2016: Raiders owner Mark Davis announces he would like to move the team to Las Vegas, and pledges $500 million toward a new domed stadium.
May 20, 2016: Patriots owner Robert Kraft tells USA TODAY Sports that the Raiders moving to Las Vegas “would be good for the NFL.”
May 24, 2016: Raiders owner Mark Davis says he is “very optimistic” about move to Las Vegas during NFL owners meeting in North Carolina. NFL commissioner says talks are “very premature.”
June 27, 2016: A group comprising the Raiders, casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Majestic Realty narrow stadium site to four locations.
Aug. 20, 2016: Raiders file trademark for name “Las Vegas Raiders,” according to a Forbes report.
Aug. 25, 2016: Developers settle on $1.9 billion budget for new stadium, as well as location west of Interstate 15 across from Mandalay Bay.
Sept. 15, 2016: Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee sends proposal to Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval for $1.9 billion, 65,000-seat domed stadium in Las Vegas, requiring $750 million public money financed through an increase in the hotel room tax.
Sept. 18, 2016: NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says “a lot has to happen” in order for the Raiders to move to Las Vegas.
Sept. 20, 2016: An investment group in Oakland connected to Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott offers to purchase Oakland-Alameda Coliseum to prevent the Raiders from leaving the city for Las Vegas or Los Angeles, according to a report from the East Bay Times.
Sept. 25, 2016: Cowboys owner Jerry Jones urges Nevada lawmakers to be aggressive in bringing Raiders to Las Vegas.
Oct. 5, 2016: Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval calls special legislative session to consider financing for 65,000-seat football stadium and convention center expansion in Las Vegas.
Oct. 10, 2016: A special session of the Nevada legislature begins to discuss financing for a new NFL stadium in Las Vegas.
Oct. 14, 2016: Nevada Senate and Assembly pass amended Senate Bill 1, approving financing for a 65,000-seat domed stadium in Las Vegas.
The Review-Journal is owned by the family of Sheldon Adelson, chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp.
The Raiders had a lengthy battle with Oakland for a stadium
Oakland doesn’t have strong attendance numbers and covers seats in the upper deck with a large tarp. That’s not why the Raiders are headed to Las Vegas, though. Like just about every relocation in pro sports, the move is a consequence of stadium issues.
Their current home is too old and out of date
After six seasons with games played in Kezar Stadium, Candlestick Park, and Frank Youell Field, the Raiders moved into the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum (now RingCentral Coliseum) in 1966.
It was the franchise’s home until the departure for LA, and it became the Raiders’ home once again when they returned. Right now, it’s the fourth-oldest stadium currently hosting an NFL team, behind only Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (1923), Soldier Field in Chicago (1924), and Lambeau Field in Green Bay (1957).
The Rams are leaving the LA Coliseum after the 2019 season. Both Soldier Field and Lambeau Field have undergone over $600 million in renovations during the 21st century. The last investment in the Raiders’ home was a $200 million renovation back in 1995-96.
Furthermore, RingCentral Coliseum is the last multi-purpose stadium that serves as the home of both an NFL and a Major League Baseball team. In 1971, 17 of the NFL’s 26 teams shared their stadium with an MLB club. As recent as a decade ago, the Raiders, 49ers, Chargers, and Vikings still did. But that’s become an outdated practice.
The Raiders wanted to leave RingCentral Coliseum to the Oakland Athletics and have a home of their own. That wasn’t easy to find in the East Bay.
Oakland wasn’t excited to dish out money for a $1 billion stadium
Rumblings that the Raiders could be on their way out of Oakland date back over a decade. A short-term lease extension in 2009 quelled those rumors and showed that the team and the city were willing to try to find a long-term solution.
The Raiders didn’t ask for an extravagant palace. In 2013, a team-commissioned study projected that a 56,500-seat stadium would cost about $800 million. The city wasn’t excited about the idea of pitching in to make the project happen, though.
Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2015 that she “cannot support spending a dime of public funds for a new stadium.”
“We don’t have $400 million lying around,” she said.
Eventually in 2017, the city put together a last-minute pitch to keep the Raiders from leaving that would include a $600 million investment from a New York-based hedge fund. However, the lack of public funding made the NFL uneasy. That’s probably not a bad idea for the City of Oakland, but it cost the area the Raiders when Las Vegas was willing to shell out an unprecedented amount.
League History 1970 – Present / National Football League 1960 – 1969 / American Football League
Team History 2020 – Present / Las Vegas Raiders 1995 – 2019 / Oakland Raiders 1982 – 1994 / Los Angeles Raiders 1960 – 1981 / Oakland Raiders
Nickname Raiders – Chet Soda, Oakland’s first general manager, sponsored a name-the-team contest in 1960. Helen A. Davis, an Oakland policewoman, submitted the winning entry, Señors, and was rewarded with a trip to the Bahamas. The nickname, an allusion to the old Spanish settlers of northern California, was ridiculed in the weeks that followed, and fans also claimed that the contest was fixed. Scotty Stirling, a sportswriter for the Oakland Tribune who would later become the team’s general manager, provided another reason to abandon the nickname. “That’s no good,” Stirling said. “We don’t have the accent mark for the n in our headline type.” Responding to the backlash, Soda and the team’s other investors decided to change the team’s nickname to Raiders, which was a finalist in the contest along with Lakers.
To qualify as the greatest player for this team, the player must have played one season for this team. If not, we will remove the player. * verifies that player has played for this team as an added player by a fan.
Owner 2011 – Present / Mark and Carol Davis 1983 – 2011 / Al Davis 1976 – 1983 / Al Davis and Ed McGah 1966 – 1976 / F. Wayne Valley, Ed McGah and Al Davis 1961 – 1966 / F. Wayne Valley and Ed McGah 1960 / Y. Charles (Chet) Soda
The Raiders had a faux sendoff at the end of the 2018 season
Nobody was trying to be deceitful. It really looked like a Christmas Eve game at the end of the 2018 season would be the Raiders’ last hurrah in Oakland.
It felt like the perfect goodbye. Then the Raiders made a deal with the City of Oakland to keep the team in place for one more year. Now it’s time to do it all over again.
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