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NAPA, Calif. – Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis has reiterated his stance that if Las Vegas can get its financing for a new stadium in order, he will move his franchise to Nevada. Meanwhile, the two faces of the franchise as players are taking a wait-and-see approach. Quarterback Derek Carr, who played his college football at UNLV rival Fresno State, and All-Pro outside linebacker/defensive end Khalil Mack, both of whom are entering their third seasons, were asked Friday about the possibility of having to relocate. “Obviously, I hear as much as y’all do like on ESPN and stuff, but once football starts, it becomes really easy not to listen to it because we’re getting coached up,” Carr said following Oakland’s first training camp practice. “You have to perform to keep your job and to excel at your job. Once football starts it’s easy, but during the offseason you hear those things and you wonder, ‘Oh, is it going to happen? Is it not? Oh well.’”  Mack said while he has not personally investigated the chances of a move, he admitted he and Carr have talked about not letting such Las Vegas talk become a distraction. Not for them as individuals, and not for the team as leaders.
“I heard some stuff, but you never know; I don’t know,” Mack said. “No matter where we go, where we are, keeping these guys focused on winning and going out and working hard and everything is going to work out as it may. But as of now, we’re in beautiful Napa, chilling, working hard and trying to get ready for this great season that we’re about to try to approach.” Backers of a possible 65,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof and natural grass in Las Vegas, at a price tag between $1.7 and $2.1 billion, announced Thursday in a meeting of the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee that they hope to whittle their list of potential sites to two by Aug. 25. There are currently four primary locations – at the Bali Hai Golf Course just south of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on land owned by McCarran International Airport; a 62-acre site west and across Interstate 15 of Mandalay Bay on Russell Road; a 113-acre site west of I-15 on Tropicana Avenue that is owned by the Fertitta family, who recently sold UFC for $4 billion; and a combined 107-acre site owned by UNLV on Tropicana and Koval Lane across the street from McCarran International Airport and in the Thomas & Mack Center parking lot on campus further east on Tropicana. There are also three secondary locations under consideration: a 139-acre site at the Wynn Golf Club, east of Wynn Encore and Wynn Las Vegas off the Strip; a 35-acre site on the southwest corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue near Circus Circus, owned by MGM Resorts International and known as the “Rock in Rio” festival grounds; and a 50-acre site where Cashman Field currently sits near North Las Vegas, where the baseball Triple-A team Las Vegas 51s, a minor league affiliate of the New York Mets, currently plays. The 51s have designs on moving to a new facility in Summerlin, northwest of downtown Las Vegas. “We know we love Oakland,” Carr said. “We love the city. We love our fans. If we were to go somewhere else, that’s Mr. Davis’ plan. We’re going to love them, too. It’s all up to him. “To us, we’re going to play ball and we’re going to play for the Raider Nation, and that’s what I know.”
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