Hurley: Raiders Move To Las Vegas A Slap In The Face To Oakland -- And All Sports Fans
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Sports, ultimately, is a business.
It may be the most tired cliche in an industry full of them. Players say it whenever contracts come up. Fans say it whenever players come and go. Talking heads say it when they're run out of things to say. It is a business.
It's cliche, but it's true. The world of sports revolves around money. For the athletes, it's about making money. For the fans, it's about spending money. And for the billionaires who own the teams, it's all about generating the type of profits that most of us can't ever fully comprehend. The owners take in obscene amounts of money, thanks to the players dedicating their lives to the sport and the fans dedicating large portions of their paycheck to their teams. It is how the sports ecosystem exists. We all understand the deal.
Yet lately, the NFL has exposed the unseemly underbelly of just how much the league and its leaders value the almighty increasing profit margin. The Rams couldn't get the residents of Missouri to pay for a new stadium (even though they weren't finished paying for the existing stadium), so the Rams packed up and left town, abandoning fans who spent 21 years supporting the team. Thanks for the memories. But it's a business.
Rams owner Stan Kroenke is worth $7.4 billion.
The Chargers likewise couldn't get taxpayers to finance a new stadium. That was in November. Within two months, they announced they were leaving -- packing up and moving up the road to Los Angeles. Sorry, San Diegans, but if you loved the Chargers, you should have paid. And if you still love the Chargers, you won't mind making the 300-mile round trip on Sundays to watch them play -- while paying the highest ticket prices in the NFL. This is, after all, a business.
Chargers owner Dean Spanos is worth $2.4 billion.
And now, the Oakland Raiders -- the Oakland Raiders -- are prepping to desert their fans in favor of Las Vegas, where taxes will pay for $750 million toward a new stadium and another $200 million for stadium maintenance. Not surprisingly, the profit-conscience owners are all expected to happily sign off on this great opportunity for the league. Goodbye, Oakland fans. Maybe next time you'll give us a billion dollars when we ask for it. We're trying to run a business here.
Raiders owner Mark Davis is not worth the billions of his peers, as he was born into his ownership of the team. But even coming from an "outsider's" perspective, so to speak, Davis showed little to no interest in having any loyalty to the fans who made him and his family extraordinarily wealthy for his entire life. He's taking off for Las Vegas and he's not looking back.
To put it bluntly, this move stinks. Not only is it the third franchise relocation in a span of two years, but it's the Raiders. While yes, the Raiders did leave Oakland for Los Angeles for a 13-year stretch that ended in 1994, they've been back where they've belonged for more than 20 years. They are important to the NFL. They are historic. They are an original member of the AFL. The mere sight of the Silver And Black evokes emotions in every single football fan. They have, arguably, the most dedicated fans in all of North American sports.
They're the Raiders. And they're moving to ... Las Vegas.
Whom does this move please, aside from the owners? There will be new fans in Vegas, sure, but that's a market that's very much unknown with regard to sports fandom. They're getting an NHL franchise, and they're apparently getting the Raiders. People will show up -- at least to start, and the booming tourist industry will sustain the attendance numbers in the early years. But history shows that when teams don't succeed, attendance numbers sag. One could point out that the Raiders have ranked near the bottom of NFL attendance in recent years, but they also spent 13 years being one of the worst teams in the sport. A traditional approach to fixing that issue would be to install smart leaders to run the franchise and create a consistent, winning product on the field in order to win back the attention (and money) of the paying customers.
Instead, the Raiders see a big pile of money out in the desert. And they're just going to pounce on it.
The rest of the owners will get to boast shiny, "soaring" numbers to their advertisers. They'll be able to continue to line their pockets and their families' pockets for generations.
It makes it feel like no franchise is safe. Sure, the Giants and Cowboys won't be leaving for Portland and Orlando any time soon. But with so many relocations in such a short span, and all of them happening because taxpayers wouldn't agree to gift wrap a billion dollars for a billionaire, you have to wonder -- who's next?
At a certain point, one has to wonder what the ultimate cost will be. Maybe it's because it's the third team to abandon a fan base in three years, or maybe it's because the Raiders matter more to the NFL than the Rams or Chargers, but this one just feels wrong. And the fact that Mark Davis -- the greatest beneficiary of Raiders' fans passion -- is leading the charge makes it all the worse.
It really has to make sports fans wonder -- why bother? Really, why bother investing time, money and emotion into the exploits of the men wearing the uniform of your team, if that team can decide to just up and leave if the fans are unwilling to be held hostage in stadium negotiations. Why bother spending thousands on season tickets, and thousands more on jerseys and hats and decals and flags and T-shirts (and, you know, permanent tattoos), if the city name on that merchandise is going to be obsolete without any notice?
Fans are often powerless. It's part of the deal. They put up with it, because experiencing sports brings them joy. There's nothing like it. Fans are powerless -- and the owners don't care. Like a smack in the face, the moving of a franchise provides a most unpleasant reminder.
Sports is a business, yes, but it's only a successful business because the fans provide the financial backing. The more billionaires who decide to ditch fans for not gifting the owners a billion dollars, the less fans feel like they matter at all in the equation. To ignore the residual effects of this dynamic is to be short-sighted. And the NFL looks to have lost any semblance of even pretending to care about fans.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
