Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman just doubled down on the Oakland Raiders moving to the desert.

Goodman told ESPN Radio's "Capital Games" podcast on Tuesday that she expects the Raiders to move to her city unless the state botches the deal.

"The Raiders will come if Nevada handles this properly," Goodman said.

For years, there have been a few firmly held principles in NFL relocation discussions. One is the assumption that the NFL would never allow a team to go to America's Playground, where gambling — which the NFL historically has treated as verboten — is legal. Another is that NFL franchises routinely use one city's promises to drive up the bidding elsewhere.

Now both might be in some doubt. The newly moved Los Angeles Rams escaped St. Louis after a long fight, and Mark Davis' Raiders seemed to be left with little leverage in his desire to get funding for a new stadium in the Bay Area or move to a place that will help him do so.

Davis already has met with the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee, saying he'd front $500 million toward building a 65,000-seat domed stadium at a total cost of $1.4 billion. With casino backing added, nearly half the project would be accounted for but it would leave $750 million for taxpayers to fund, although that could change if the Nevada Legislature is allowed to reroute some room-tax funds to support the stadium. Goodman also said there were out-of-town investors who had expressed interest in helping fund the project if relocation was approved.

Even with the question marks and unknowns, Goodman says that the two sides are far enough along that there's no turning back.

"Mark Davis has assured us that Las Vegas is not getting played in a Raiders stadium deal," Goodman said. "I know we will have a team."

This might be true: Davis might really want to move there and has no designs on pulling a switcheroo and heading to Portland, San Antonio or some other location, or going back to Oakland with Vegas' offer as his leverage to stick around.

But would the NFL allow such a move? Even with the slow thaw of some NFL executives' views on Vegas in recent years, there still remains a prevailing old-school thinking in the upper circles that bringing the league to Sin City invites questions about whether games are being played under the full auspice of fairness.

Relocation requires three-quarters of the membership approval — in this case, 24 of the remaining 31 parent clubs — to green light such a move. As we saw with the musical-chairs-meets-dirty-politics case of the Rams winning an L.A. bid over the Raiders and San Diego Chargers, votes can swing in a hurry but also cause some deep-seeded resentment among the Billionaire Boys Club.

Here at the Shutdown Corner, we're in the we'll-believe-it-when-we-see-it camp, although it appears more likely now than it did when the Raiders had the rug pulled out from underneath them in February at the owners' meeting in Houston that granted Los Angeles to the Rams instead.

But don't make a futures bet on this happening just yet.

http://www.yahoo.com/sports/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/mayor--vegas--not-getting-played--by-raiders--expects-them-to-move-183103675.html

she?



EDIT--

apparently, thats not her... not sure why this dude is pictured here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolyn_Goodman_%28politician%29

He may be the owner of the Raiders, Mark Davis.
But why he us pictured on Yahoo article is weird.

* On the left *

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-vegas-raiders-20160428-story.html/

i thought so too... i was pretty confused there for a while...

Vegas should have a team IMO....not too worried about the gambling influence...that stuff is all over the internet anyway.
Build a dome though...too damn hot in the early season to be playing outdoors.

Yes shes,,, Ummmm very handsome?!?!? Well I for one think that would be great. The silver and black can get it back, in the desert of the real! Boom!

IF Vegas wants them build a dome.

The Raiders need to go somewhere...

No, they need to move to San Antonio. They already have a stadium.
I thought they were going to get the Saints for a while.

No one wants an NFL team in Northern Mexico.....





















Just kiddin lol

Yea, and they would have to change their name to the "Chihuahua's.

Los Chihuahua Border jumpers,, mee likeee!

The raiders have sucked as a team,
since Lyle Alzado died.

Las Vegas would be great....Name could be The Las Vegas Slots....

...now just WHAT could their cheerleaders be called? Hmm......

kinda like the cheerleaders from "the replacements"?

Ha! Perfect!

Away!
The raiders need to go away.

goodman shouldn't gamble.....goodman shall lead......

Yea, but anytime Governor Spend it all Sandoval gets the changes to raise or play with taxes he gets a boner. I am sure this will happen and it will be crap for the taxpayers here in Nevada.

Taxpayers are still eating that massive stadium for the Reno Aces that they put in the middle of one of the roughest area's in Reno. Attendance has never met expectations because the locals no not to go in that area.