News

Las Vegas Not Oakland Raiders NFL Stadium Ready, Here’s Why

Published

9 years ago

January 23, 2017

Las Vegas is not ready for the Oakland Raiders, nor does it have an NFL Stadium plan. And by “Las Vegas,” this Zennie62.com Zennie Abraham / Zennie62 on YouTube Oakland Post video-blogger means Clark County, Nevada, and the people in charge of leading the effort to draw the Silver and Black away from Oakland.

Fans of the idea of the Oakland Raiders in Las Vegas got really excited when the NFL team’s owner Mark Davis officially filed with the National Football League to relocate to Sin City on Thursday of last week (ironically on the date of the famous “Tuck Rule” NFL Divisional Playoff game that the Raiders lost to the New England Patriots).

Those Vegas fans insisted that the Raiders move to Las Vegas was a “done deal” as some like to tweet from time to time. In point of fact, it’s anything but, and just a look reveals that not only is it not a done deal, but that the Las Vegas planners have a long way to go before they can crow about being ready for the Raiders. That doesn’t come from this blogger’s imagination, but the very Las Vegas Review-Journal itself – the same media organization owned by the family of Las Vegas Sands Founder and CEO Sheldon Adelson. Yes, the same Mr. Adelson who, almost exactly one year ago, began his partnership with Mr. Davis in forming the Raiders-to-Las Vegas plan.

What the Review-Journal did was assemble, in one neat but not-complete package, why Las Vegas isn’t ready – and echoed everything this blogger has said to anyone who would not listen. Let’s take the reasons as a list, and I will add more reasons based on how the Stadium Authority’s enabling legislation was written, and the common steps associated with NFL stadium development.

1. The Las Vegas Stadium Authority is still, as of this writing, in formation. In fact, it’s still so new, it hasn’t even picked out a law firm to represent it, and just installed its newest board member on January 12th.

2. There’s no developer. The initial Las Vegas Sands / Oakland Raiders partnership included Majestic Realty as a third partner – and they were to add a $150 million investment. But on September 13th of 2016, Majestic announced it was leaving the deal, saying that Mr. Adelson wanted to pay for the remainder of the stadium cost himself as a “legacy project.”

3. There’s no Mark Davis deal with Mr. Adelson and Las Vegas Sands. To date, what was expected by some to be smooth sailing to a deal after the Nevada Legislature was strong-armed by Adelson’s deputies (some would say bullied) into passing the controversial $750 million subsidy (with a very tight and unheard of 1.5-to-1 debt coverage ratio), has been anything but. Adelson went public, saying that he could walk away from a plan with Davis if he didn’t get what he wanted. Davis, in turn, let the media float an alternative plan that would remove Adelson and his $800 million investment ($650 million plus the $150 millon gap left when Majestic backed out) – in place was Davis’ questionable claim that Goldman Sachs would finance the monetary hole left in Adelson’s wake, but implying that the investment banking firm would be the investor replacing Adelson. (Questionable because Goldman Sachs does not invest it’s own money in stadiums – just provides financing based on expected cash flows from identified stadium development-related sources.)

4. There’s no named and identified replacement investor for Sheldon Adelson, even with claims that one exists out there, somewhere, no real name or organization has been identified.

5. There’s no deal agreement with the alternative investor to Sheldon Adelson.

6. Because of 3, 4, and 5, there’s no proposed term sheet.

7. Because of 3, 4, and 5, there’s no stadium lease agreement.

8. Because of 3, 4, and 5, the NFL has not weighed in with its opinion.

9. There’s no stadium land deal in place. The Review-Journal explains what many have known for months: that, to quote “64 acres on four parcels bordered by Russell Road, Hacienda Avenue, Polaris Avenue and Dean Martin Drive. It’s just west of Interstate 15 and the Mandalay Bay resort. The Raiders reportedly have an option to buy the unoccupied land.”

10. According to the Nevada legislation enabling the Las Vegas Stadium Authority, once the land is selected, the stadium authority still has to vote to approve it. Moreover, there are other competing ideas for the placement of the stadium, including the reported “67 acres between Las Vegas Boulevard and I-15, just north of Blue Diamond Road” according to the Review-Journal, and the Cashman Site near Downtown Las Vegas, which Las Vegas Mayor Goodman has long favored.

11. Who pays for the $1 billion stadium transportation infrastructure plan that was released by the Nevada Department of Transportation on October 4th of 2016? That plan was hidden from media view and from much of the Nevada Legislature until October 10th, and during the deliberations around the subsidy – news that came close to killing the votes for the bond issue that Las Vegas Sands lobbyists worked overtime to get.

12. Once the Las Vegas Stadium Authority get to the point of approving a deal, if one ever comes to fruition, The Clark County Board Of Commissioners still has to approve the permits and possible needed zoning changes to build the stadium at whatever site is selected. The stadium authority’s legislation does not give it power to totally circumvent Clark County’s Board. In development matters – the authority’s primary role is that of a fiscal agent for the stadium bond issue.

13. Who pays for the $550 million relocation fee from Oakland to Las Vegas? Even at ten years, it still comes to $55 million annually, and thus The Raiders run into the same problem that reared its head in the Carson case last year: the Oakland Raiders have not had net operating incomes over $44 million at any time in the 21st Century. Adding an annual $55 million hit from a $550 million relocation fee (not including interest) drives the team into the red each year.

14. Where does UNLV fit in the Raiders stadium agreement plan? Will the Raiders agree in writing to let UNLV use the stadium rent free, perhaps as a tax-write-off? Will that amount be enough to offset the stadium operating costs for UNLV games the Raiders would eat?

Those are the primary issues outstanding that put Las Vegas, in total, light years behind where Oakland is. Oakland has an investor in The Lott Group and Fortress Investments, land that does not need to be approved for rezoning, a stadium term sheet, approved use of the land via a general plan approved in 2015, an already financed infrastructure plan, a transportation system that does not need to be expanded or upgraded, let alone paid for, and because it’s the Raiders home, no need for a $550 million relocation fee.

Oh, and Oakland has a built-in fan base called Raider Nation that drove a season ticket sellout in 2016 and produced many game ticket sellouts when the team was posting losing seasons.

With all that, why are the Raiders even trying to move to Las Vegas? And why doesn’t the NFL point out just how far Las Vegas really has to go? NFL Stadium point person Eric Grubman has said that the Raiders don’t need to fill out a proposal to file a relocation fee, but once does, their proposal will undergo NFL scrutiny, and soon. Still, Grubman should weigh in on Las Vegas’ many problems to date.

With Las Vegas having so many problems, Grubman is right to tell Oakland officials that it’s task is to form a stadium plan, and not an answer to Sin City. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf needs to shift her words to avoid using terms like “competitive” and because Vegas has nothing to compete against. But what the NFL wants Oakland to do is compete against the state of stadium development art. To take this deal to the next level. In the near future, I’ll explain what that looks like.

Stay tuned.

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COMMENTARY: Black Music is the Sound of Black Freedom: Let Us Reclaim Both This Juneteenth

Black Music Month started when Black Music Association members Ed Wright, Kenny Gamble and his wife, journalist and radio host Dyanna Williams were able to persuade President Jimmy Carter to establish the observation on June 7, 1979.

Published

5 days ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) is thought of as the godfather of blues music, especially Delta blues. The 29 songs recorded by him during his short life have been of massive inspiration to guitarists and musicians over the last 80 years. Public domain photo.

By Wanda Ravernell

Black Music Month and Juneteenth are inextricably linked – Black music is the sound of our freedom.

From the plaintive moans of the enslaved Africans’ ‘sorrow songs,’ to the fields of Civil War battle where Black soldiers picked up abandoned bugles, to the upright piano played in juke joints on Saturday night and churches come Sunday morning, our ancestors’ innovation in the face of want, fear, degradation, and hopelessness has yielded genres of music imitated ’round the world.

In 2000, Congress made it official. In 2009, Pres. Barack Obama changed the name to African American Music Heritage Month and in 2023, Pres. Joe Biden changed it back to Black Music Month, two years after he declared Juneteenth a national holiday, the result of a movement led by Opal Lee.

Our ancestors battle for freedom over these last 400 years and the music that allowed them expression of their humanity deserved to be honored.

But we may be losing sight of the value of their sacrifices.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Faith That the Dark past Has Taught Us…’

Along with the long-known exploitation of Black musicians whose recordings were stolen by record companies, the commercialization of Juneteenth feels like another kind of theft.

I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to the Bay Area from my hometown of Philadelphia. I didn’t know it was one of many freedom festivals celebrated by descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

Emancipation Day was Jan. 1 in Pennsylvania, April 16 in Wash., D.C., May 20 in Florida, and Aug. 8 in Kentucky. But Juneteenth, June 19, has the most renown, known in Texas as the ‘colored peoples’ Fourth of July.’

It was marked by parades, beauty pageants, rodeos, backyard barbecues and church picnics.

Yes, church.

The formerly enslaved began the day praying in thanks for their freedom just as they had prayed for Jubilee – the day of freedom – when they had chains on their feet and hands. They ‘testified’ about their past suffering and how they had managed to overcome.

And they sang.

Although, we will not hold it this year, Omnira Institute’s Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance recalled this part of Juneteenth with prayers in the languages of the African captives. In the middle of the ceremony, a soloist would lead us in singing “Many Thousand Gone” while we took turns reciting portions of the Emancipation Proclamation, the news of freedom that took more than two years to reach Texas – two months after the Civil War ended.

“Many Thousand Gone” was famously recorded by Black luminary Paul Robeson in 1947:

“No more auction block for me,

No more, no more

No more auction black for me

Many thousand gone.”

Other verses refer to the ‘pint of salt’ and the ‘driver’s lash,’ the realities of enslavement that they had survived.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Hope That the Present has Brought Us’

All of the genres of African American music have at their root songs like that, the essence being, as Stevie Wonder, wrote, “the joy inside our pain.” So Black music is not just music. It is our story, our history, our very strength.

During the Civil Rights Movement, which peaked 100 years after slavery ended, the people testified that it was the freedom songs – based on spirituals – that gave them the heart to march, face attack dogs, fire hoses, beatings, and shootouts with vigilantes.

The music reminded them that power was in the people. That music, our music, can do so again. We don’t have to accept the commodification of the products of our culture.

The power of those songs is showing a resurgence across the South as we battle again for the right to self-determination through the ballot box.

Those songs are the voices of our ancestors, voices forged in their blood, their sweat, their tears, joy and, above all, faith. Those songs, those prayers live in our blood and our very breath.

This Juneteenth, let us reclaim those holy voices expressed in Black music for ourselves. It is our birthright. It can neither be bought nor sold. No more. Never again.

Wanda Ravernell is the executive director of Omnira Institute, sponsor for 18 years of the Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance and Oakland’s 11^th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival, which will take place on Sept. 12.

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Oakland Post: Week of June 3 – 9, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 3 – 9, 2026

Published

5 days ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

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Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled

BLACKPRESS USA NEWSWIRE — “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”
The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

5 days ago

June 8, 2026

Oakland Post

By National Women’s Law Center

The National Women’s Law Center released its annual State Child Care Assistance Policies report, finding that the number of children placed on waiting lists for federally funded child care assistance nearly doubled between 2024 and 2025 — and that number has only continued to grow.

The report serves as a key resource for state lawmakers, advocates, and policymakers by tracking state child care assistance policies and identifying where states are strengthening support for families and early educators — or falling behind.

“This deeply troubling increase in the number of children on child care waiting lists is the result of a failure to invest in this crucial sector,” said Karen Schulman, senior director of state child care policy and author of the report. “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”

Key findings in the report related to waiting lists for child care assistance include:

• 17 states had waiting lists or a freeze on intake for child care assistance in February 2025, up from 13 states in February 2024.

• Approximately 106,700 children nationwide were added to waiting lists between February 2024 and February 2025, bringing the total to 225,500 children in February 2025 — a 90 percent increase compared to February 2024.

• The numbers climbed even further between February 2025 and summer/fall 2025, with more than 175,000 additional children added to state waiting lists in just a few months — a 78 percent increase.

• At least seven states newly began placing families on waiting lists or freezing intake, while at least 10 additional states saw their waiting lists grow, after February 2025.

The report also includes state-by-state data on key child care assistance policies, including income eligibility limits, parent copayments, provider payment rates, and eligibility policies for parents searching for work.

Click the link to learn more: Warning Signs: State Child Care Assistance Policies 2025.

The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.