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The Oakland Raiders are expected to file the necessary paperwork in the coming weeks to relocate the NFL franchise to Las Vegas. After many years of trying to get a new stadium in Oakland, the Raiders have made a firm decision on their future, according to NFL Media's Ian Rapoport.
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The city of Oakland has made no progress to keep the team and has not come up with a stadium proposal the league and the Raiders believe is credible, sources told Rapoport.
The Raiders need 23 of the 31 other franchises to approve the move. A relocation vote on the Raiders is not expected before the annual league meetings in March.
Raiders owner Mark Davis was in talks with casino magnate Sheldon Adelson last year about financing a Las Vegas stadium for $1.9 billion.
In October, state lawmakers in Nevada approved $750 million in public funding for a stadium in Las Vegas by a vote of 16-5 in the Senate and 28-13 in the Assembly.
The Raiders, who lost last Saturday to the Houston Texans in an AFC wild-card game, had to wait until their season ended to announce any plans to relocate.
"If the (Raiders) decide that they can't make it work in Oakland and they decide that they want to file for relocation, then their window is from when they get eliminated from the playoffs to Feb. 15," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell recently said.
Members of the stadium and finance committees met Wednesday at league headquarters in New York and focused primarily on the Raiders' interest in Las Vegas, according to the Los Angeles Times.
On Thursday, Chargers chairman Dean Spanos officially announced his plans to move the franchise to Los Angeles after 56 seasons in San Diego.
The Rams moved from St. Louis to Los Angeles a year ago, and they will share their to-be-built stadium in Inglewood, Calif., with the Chargers.
