Raiders watchers greet Las Vegas news with a shrug

Las Vegas sports fans have been buzzing with excitement since news broke Thursday that Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis was scheduled to meet with Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson regarding the site of a potential $1 billion domed stadium on property owned by UNLV.

The built-up excitement for the "Las Vegas Raiders," however, may be a bit premature.

Some of the top sports media members in the Bay Area said Friday that they think the talk of relocating to Las Vegas is merely that.

"I don't think anyone here, particularly the writers, takes it seriously," said Art Spander, a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner. "It's like the boy who cried wolf. We've seen this story again and again."

Spander, who has covered sports in the Bay Area for more than 50 years and is a McCann Award winner for his reporting on professional football, has been around long enough to see the Raiders' constant battles with relocation and inadequate stadiums. He was there when the team moved to Los Angeles in 1982 and when it returned to Oakland in 1995.

Though he "wouldn't say anything is impossible," he isn't buying the Oakland to Las Vegas chatter. And he's not the only one.

For the media, it's become a yearly thing in Oakland.

"You just get used to it after a while," said Raiders beat writer Jerry McDonald, who has been covering the team since 1995 and currently does so for the Bay Area Newspaper Group. "There's always been issues with the stadium and the Raiders. People are just numb to it. They're shrugging their shoulders."

Some believe Raiders owner Mark Davis is using Las Vegas as leverage against the city of Oakland in hopes of getting a stadium built there.

"It's unfortunate they have to use a city as leverage, but sometimes it's necessary," said Jim Kozimor, a veteran sports broadcaster and host of Comcast's "Yahoo! SportsTalk Live." "It's part of the entire process."

While he considers Las Vegas a viable city for professional sports, particularly the NFL, Kozimor believes the Raiders will stay put in the Bay Area — perhaps somewhere other than O.co Coliseum, though.

"I think the Raiders are going to play in the Oakland Coliseum in 2016 and 2017," Kozimor said. "The NFL will eventually force them to stay in Oakland and then share a stadium with the 49ers in Santa Clara. … If Mark Davis wants to keep the team, the NFL will move him or force him to think about Levi's Stadium."

Raiders play-by-play caller Greg Papa, who has been broadcasting for Bay Area professional sports franchises for nearly 30 years, addressed the possibility of the Las Vegas Raiders on Friday on ESPN 1100 radio.

"I just don't see it," Papa said. "I think the NBA might be more open to it. (Commissioner) Adam Silver might be the guy to take the lead on it."

Silver, who has been outspoken on the topic since taking over for David Stern, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times in 2014, saying sports betting "should be brought out of the underground."

For years, the NFL has been indignant toward legalized gambling.

Many don't see that changing anytime soon.

The Review-Journal is owned by a limited liability company controlled by the Adelson family, majority owners of Las Vegas Sands.

Contact reporter Ashton Ferguson at aferguson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0430. Follow him on Twitter: @af_ferguson