NFL creates identity crisis in moving Raiders to Las Vegas
The NFL's owners approved the Oakland Raiders' relocation proposal in a reported 31-1 vote, sending one of the most iconic franchises in league history to a city that lacks real sporting capital of its own. Monday will forever be remembered as the day where the NFL generated its own identity crisis as a result.
Oakland's rabid fan base cultivated one of the most intimidating auras in professional sports, a tribute to a forgone cultural milieu that shaped the NFL as we know it. Raider Nation registered as its own trademark and encapsulated a diverse group that included a wide variety of personas, from Tom Hanks to N.W.A., the latter of whom made the team's insignia an auxiliary part of rap culture.
In taking the team to Las Vegas, and away from a fervent Bay Area market, the NFL loses a bevy of social capital.
Related: Raiders' move to Las Vegas caps embarrassing 15 months for NFL
Las Vegas is synonymous with being in a transient state, long advertised as a tourist hub, or for a more hyperbolic feel, "The Entertainment Capital of the World," starkly contrasting Oakland's blue-collar ethos. The conflicting sociopolitical makeup of the respective cities also extends to their sporting cultures, with Oakland's rich tapestry lionized by the A's World Series three-peat (1972-1974), along with the Raiders' own dominance during the same decade. In comparison, Las Vegas is grasping at straws.
Vegas has admittedly long been a hub for marquee boxing matches, but hasn't established a strong culture of team sports. MLB superstars Bryce Harper and Kris Bryant both hail from Las Vegas, a twice-in-a-century coincidence that doesn't forecast the city as an emerging baseball city. Jerry Tarkanian's UNLV basketball teams of the early 1990s have been forgotten by mostly everyone, save for historians and hard-luck gamblers. To the NFL's own embarrassment, the NHL beat it to the punch in establishing the Vegas Golden Knights, a franchise that will be sure to carve its own identity next season, as opposed to co-opting the Raiders' long-established brand. It's going to be next to impossible to recreate the Raiders' aura in a city that's largely been indifferent.
The NFL will spin the move to Las Vegas as a lucrative business opportunity, entering a new market with Derek Carr, Amari Cooper, and Khalil Mack's images ready to be plastered on billboards everywhere. It may have been a savvy move for the league's owners, but by uprooting the Raiders from where they belong, the NFL has created an identity crisis of its own making.