The Oakland Raiders made another move Monday toward a possible relocation to Las Vegas.
The team informed the NFL that they have secured financing from Bank of America for their potential Las Vegas stadium, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported, per a source informed of the situation.
The Los Angeles Daily News was first to report the story.
NFL Executive Vice President Eric Grubman confirmed to Rapoport that the Raiders presented the new funding plan to the league's finance and stadium committees and that Bank of America "confirmed their readiness to provide traditional bank financing so that the project would be fully financed."
Grubman said once the committee reaches a consensus about the new proposed plan it will have a clearer picture on how to proceed in helping NFL team owners determine if the team's funding situation for a Las Vegas stadium is secure. Any potential move to Las Vegas by the Raiders would require approval from 24 of 32 team owners.
"Bank of America is a very well-known as respected lender to the sports industry," Grubman said in an email to Rapoport when asked if the NFL is pleased with the bank being on board.
Rapoport added that the joint committee is inclined to recommend the Raiders' relocation proposal to ownership during the Annual League Meeting in Phoenix later this month. No formal vote taken by the committee Tuesday but progress was made in moving closer to a recommendation, Rapoport reported.
The news comes just several weeks after casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and later Goldman Sachs had pulled out of a plan to build a $1.9 billion domed stadium in Las Vegas. Adelson had pledged $650 million and the Raiders $500 million, with the stadium authority putting up $750 million in Las Vegas tax revenues.
"The Raiders got some huge news today -- news that Raiders president Mark Badain communicated to the league's finance committee and that is that they now have funding for their $1.9 billion stadium," Rapoport reported. "They have secured financing from Bank of America, replacing Sheldon Adelson, who had previously, of course and very famously, been in charge of financing and helping fund his big-time Raiders stadium. And this has always, pretty quietly, been the confidence point for the Raiders over the past couple weeks.
"While everyone doubted them and basically wrote off Vegas when Sheldon Adelson bailed, they thought there would be several options of banks with the initiative and wanting to finance them. They have now found that Bank of America is one of them and they still hope to have a vote on going to Vegas this spring. Maybe at the March meetings, maybe a couple months later at the league meetings in May."
