The Raiders have now been in Las Vegas for two full seasons, but if the NFL had had an idea started in 2014, the Raiders would never have made it to Vegas and that’s because they would have ended up in St. Louis.
This wild information was one of many things that came to light over the past week after the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was able to obtain numerous court records from the lawsuit between the City of St. Louis and the NFL. In the lawsuit, the league agreed to a $790 million payment as part of a settlement reached with the city in November.
The lawsuit was filed by the city over the Rams’ decision to leave St. Louis. According to court documents, it became fairly clear that the Rams privately planned to leave St. Louis in 2013, even though they publicly said they wanted to stay. In January 2014, Rams owner Stan Kroenke bought a giant piece of land in Los Angeles, where the SoFi Stadium would eventually be built. At the time of purchase, Kroenke insisted that the land was not going to be built for a stadium.
Although the NFL wouldn’t publicly admit it, it was pretty clear the Rams were going to leave St. Louis. To keep St. Louis fans happy, the NFL came up with a crazy plan: Move the Raiders there.
According to the Post-Dispatch, “The league did, at one point, consider moving the Raiders to St. Louis, complete with restructured ownership and rebranding.”
This information comes from court documents that the NFL probably never thought would come to light. Not only is it crazy that the league thought about moving the Raiders to St. Louis, it’s equally crazy that they wanted to do it with “restructured ownership.” It’s not exactly clear what that means, but it does insinuate that the NFL would have wanted someone other than Mark Davis to be responsible.
Of course, the craziest idea would have been to revamp the brand of the Raiders, who own one of the most iconic brands not just in the NFL, but in all of sport.
It’s unclear why the NFL balked at moving the Raiders to St. Louis, but it may be because Davis wanted nothing to do with it. In March 2016, while Davis was still trying to secure a new stadium in Oakland, he was asked about the possibility of moving to St. Louis and he vehemently rejected the idea.
“It’s just that the Raider brand is a different brand, I believe and I just don’t believe St. Louis would max it out,” Davis said at the time, via the Post-Dispatch. “I just don’t feel in my heart that this is where the Raiders will be. Wherever we put this stadium, it will be for the rest of my life. And I just want it to be the right place.”
At the time of this comment, Davis was ready to move his team to just about any city that was willing to build him a stadium, well, except St. Louis.
In the end, the Raiders moved to Las Vegas, the Rams moved to Los Angeles, and the NFL was stuck paying a $790 million legal settlement for dropping the St. Louis.