Al Davis had interest in relocating Raiders to Las Vegas

Dec 21, 2013; Las Vegas, NV, USA; General view of the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign on Las Vegas Blvd. before the Las Vegas Bowl between the Fresno State Bulldogs and the Southern California Trojans. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Las Vegas has long been a highly talked about location for a major professional sports franchise, something that North America’s sports leagues continue to ignore due to the presence of sports betting in the Sin City. Sports gambling that also makes Las Vegas a lucrative market as one of the most popular travel destinations in the United States.

According to a former Oakland Raiders quarterback, Al Davis had eyed Las Vegas as a potential relocation destination. The Las Vegas Raiders if you will.

From FanSided:

"“He would have loved to have moved the Raiders here. He told me that many times,” said David Humm, a former Nebraska Cornhuskers quarterback who played in the NFL from 1975 to 1984. “He loved this town,” Humm stated. “But there’s no way commissioner Pete Rozelle would have allowed it because of the sports books and gambling.”"

Davis famously held parties in Las Vegas and spent large amounts of his time in the state of Nevada so it is interesting that a former player has mentioned that Davis would have been interested in moving the team to Las Vegas, something that is likely more possible now then it was during the Raiders relocations in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

With the Raiders currently in a well documented stadium battle it would be interesting to see if the late Davis would have challenged the NFL to relocate to Las Vegas with Oakland still unwilling to accommodate the franchise now that it is being ran by his son Mark Davis. Surely in 2014 now NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is still opposed to the idea of placing an NFL team in Las Vegas, but if anyone was able to pull it off it would have been Al whose reputation in beating the NFL in the courtroom to get what he wanted was legendary.