General Forum

Looks like Admin is going to have to add a new name to the NFL list... Las Vegas Raiders. This could be interesting. 

I think it is sad that the NFL would let a storied franchise just up and leave for Vegas.  3 teams in 5 years move in the NFL.  At some point, the franchises will just be free agents, signing 3-4 year deals to play in a city and move on.  Chasing the money alienates the true fan, but as long as the money is flowing, the NFL won't care.  It ruins the history of the sport just to line the pockets of people that will never spend the money they have in a lifetime.  I feel like pro sports took a large step back today.  I probably wouldn't feel like this if it was a fan base with little history and no fan support, but this was the Raiders.  Nothing is sacred anymore.

 A few years back, New Jersey was trying to legalize sports betting.   The NFL was against it saying they had teams playing in the state and that sports betting and pro sports could not co-exist.   Well, looks like the almighty $$ has spoken again to the NFL.

Thank God for the Pegulas, or there would be no more Buffalo Bills.  I just hope this city moving stops unless the team just has no following.  When a team is making money and has a loyal fan base, this shouldn't be allowed.  But making millions isn't enough I guess.  These guys need another private jet or 200 foot yacht, cause they are bored of the old one.  Meanwhile the people saving to go to one game are the one's that lose.  It's just not right.

Sad day for several reasons, the critics are already putting a fork in the Golden Knights ..... say Las Vegians(?) will jump from NHL to NFL like wildfire. As it is something they "know".

Poor Oakland, was not needed for sure, was it not over some overpriced stadium deal that they moved? I remember reading about it but never thought it would happen.

Poor fans, no team is sacred anymore. Hence why you learn to cheer for a player and not a team ..... hence "ranfordfan" first "oiler RCguy second.

Just makes no sense to this Canuck.

I hate to see cities lose their teams, especially when it comes down to the fact that the team (and the league as it is complicit in this whole scheme) tried to extort the city for millions of dollars.  The city of Las Vegas is ponying up something to the tune of $700 million, which is insane.  Oakland was smart not to let themselves be played.  The NFL deserves a large share of the blame too because the legaue should help the teams pay for the stadiums when necessary.

Next season is the last for the Warriors to be in Oakland as well. They are going back to San Francisco despite having one of the most loyal fanbases in the NBA. Since the NBA refuses to expand I suspect some hapless city is going to lose a team fairly​soon as well, because when the Golden Knights and Raiders succeed in Vegas, the NBA will want to be there as well. 

I wasn't at all surprised by this. I wasn't surprised by the Rams moving back to LA either. I was surprised by the Chargers move though. That is still a head-scratcher since they have always been in San Diego. Oakland was in LA for a long time before moving to Oakland, but there wasn't much point in them moving there in the first place with San Fran having the 49ers. The teams were right across the Bay from each other and still rarely faced off on either field.

There are many NFL teams that won't ever move though. The Packers, Patriots, Steelers, Saints, Cowboys, Broncos, 49ers, Redskins (or whatever their name is when they finally change the name - which I don't think they should) will never move from those cities. I would add the Bears but they have been pretty bad for quite a while now, so the city might turn against them at some point. I would also say the Seahawks won't go anywhere, but look what happened with the Supersonics and they've already had more success since moving to OK than they did in WA for all those years. I say the Panthers won't leave Charlotte as long as Jerry Richardson is alive, but I don't know that his family wouldn't consider moving for the right amount of money in the future. At least I know they won't go to New Orleans like the Charlotte Hornets did! The rest of the NFL teams have moved before or are newer teams, so there is no telling what they might do in the future. I wouldn't be surprised to see St. Louis get a team to move there again. They got the LA Rams to move there after the Cardinals moved to Phoenix and they still have a nice domed stadium available for any team thinking about moving. I doubt we'll see any more teams move for many years to come though. My guess is that the next team to move comes from New York (actually New Jersey).

There was talk a few years back about moving the Patriots, but it turned out to just be a ploy in their barganing for a new stadium in Foxborough.  They were 'in discussions' with Hartford for a possible new location, but moving from Massachusetts to Connecticut would still have left them as the New England Patriots, so I don't know if that would really count as a move or not.

-Tom

It really irritates me that this move happened, it's as if the NFL's PR Dpeartment is absolutely oblivious to things that will hurt their image. To name a few just in the last 5 years: Concussions and CTE, various domestic abuse cases, Deflategate, and now the spineless acts that allowed for a storied franchise move to the gambling capital of the world, it's just disgraceful.