The Raiders have been doing some serious flirting with a move to Las Vegas, and for a while it looked like the move was a done deal. However, things changed quickly once casino owner Sheldon Adelson pulled his $650 million pledge towards a new stadium, which caused Goldman and Sachs to pull out as well.
Now plans for a new Las Vegas stadium are up in the air, and so are the Raiders plans to move. Ex-Raiders Tim Brown joined The Post Game Podcast and shared his thoughts on a potential move by the Raiders.
TPG: Are you rooting for that or are you rooting for them to stay?
BROWN: I am rooting for them to get a stadium and I really don’t care where it is, brother. And I’m not trying to elude your question. That’s just how I feel about it because I just believe they’re at a disadvantage when they’re recruiting free agents. Every player wants to be able to show that beautiful stadium they’re going to be playing in, well, not so much with the Raiders. They don’t even take people to the stadium. I think that’s a disadvantage. They’re the only team playing on a baseball stadium for half the year. Those things shouldn’t be in this particular point in the NFL.TPG: If you were a player and you were told, we’re moving to Las Vegas. Would you be happy? Would you be excited? I don’t know if players are thinking, wow there are a lot of distractions in Las Vegas?
BROWN: My initial concern with it was exactly that. How can you put 25-year-old rich guys in the middle of Las Vegas and say don’t you touch that. Don’t you touch that. It’s not realistic to believe that would happen, but it’s like they told me. Look, there are things in San Francisco that if they want to get into, they can go get into. You can’t stop anybody from doing anything. They’re supposed to be responsible and all that kind of stuff, so we’ll see what happens, man. These guys, if they end up in Vegas, they’re just going to have to be very cognizant of their surroundings.TPG: Will you still feel connected to a team that’s in Las Vegas, as opposed to Oakland or Los Angeles?
BROWN: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I said to you early on, I don’t care where the stadium ends up being built, I just need to get in the stadium. If Oakland can’t get it done, let’s make it happen. I’m throwing out San Antonio again. San Antonio put a heck of an offer on the table. Let’s go back and talk to them, see what they can spruce it up a little more, let’s do something a little bigger and better. Raider Nation may be upset about this or that, but they will travel. One thing we know, they will travel. They’ll be upset for a minute, especially if it’s a good football team you can bet they’ll travel and gonna make it happen. I think you just have to go with what you know if you’re the Raiders’ front office and try to make the best deal you can make and get in the city or stay there and get the thing done.
It looks like Tim Brown wants the Raiders Nation to be based in San Antonio, as long as a new stadium comes with the move.