Getty The Oakland Raiders will move to Las Vegas in 2020 but are looking for a new home in 2019.
The Oakland Raiders have several different timelines when it comes to their upcoming move to Las Vegas. The Raiders will be moving into a brand new stadium in Las Vegas in 2020, but this leaves their 2019 plans up in the air. In theory, the Raiders could continue playing in Oakland, but the relationship between the team and the city has been severed.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the city of Oakland is preparing to file an anti-trust lawsuit against the Raiders. The Raiders have threatened to leave Oakland a year early (2019) if the city follows through on the lawsuit. The Mercury News provided a rundown of the Raiders top 2019 options if they follow through on playing in a temporary home for 2019.
For convenience’s sake, there are a few options in the Bay Area, albeit with varying degrees of feasibility. Those options include sharing Levi’s Stadium with the 49ers, or going back to school for a year at Cal or, even less likely, Stanford.
If the Raiders were forced to look outside of the Bay Area, your possibilities include San Diego’s vacant Qualcomm Stadium, the Los Angeles Coliseum or perhaps even San Antonio’s Alamodome. Or the Raiders could get a jump-start on their Las Vegas era by playing a season at UNLV’s Boyd Stadium, a 40,000-seat stadium in need of improvements to become NFL compatible.
The Raiders Will Play in a Brand New Stadium in Las Vegas in 2020
The Raiders 2019 home is up in the air, but we do know they will be in Las Vegas beginning in 2020. A new 65,000 stadium is in the process of being built. The team is already accepting deposits for 2020 season tickets in the new stadium. Here is how the Raiders describe the stadium.
Near the airport and adjacent to the Las Vegas Strip, the location of Las Vegas Stadium is optimal for both local and visiting guests. State-of-the-art retractable doors and a glass-domed roof offer the best of both worlds- an outdoor feel with a natural-grass playing field and a comfortable climate- not to mention a stunning view. A sleek and seamless concept brings it all together featuring a perfect design for crowd flow during game day and large-scale events.
There is also the outside chance the Raiders move to a temporary city for 2019. We have seen this happen in the past after natural disasters. Coliseum executive director Scott McKibben told the Mercury News he does not expect the Raiders to play there if the lawsuit goes through.
“(The Raiders) made it very clear to me that (if) the City decided to file a lawsuit they would not seek a lease extension to play at the Coliseum but would play elsewhere,” McKibben told The Mercury News.
Here is a virtual tour of the new stadium.