Raiders Opinion: Neutral Field?

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When the Raiders finalized their move from Oakland to Las Vegas and set up camp in Nevada, heads turned. Initially, heads turned to witness how a football team would mesh with the gambling capital of America. But, heads continued turning when the NFL released its schedule, giving fans a blueprint of when/if their team would be headed to Sin City. Then, fans concluded they could take a weekend in Vegas and finish it out with a football game in one of the league’s newest stadiums.

Honesty

While this is great for ticket sales, which may have been the main goal of the front office, it has yet to equate to success for the Raiders. Throughout the season, fans at the games noticed significant cheers following big plays for the visiting team, something that rarely happened in Oakland. Admittedly, Oakland and the Raiders’ relationship was soured heavily and potentially beyond repair, but a majority of California still bleeds Silver and Black and the Raiders left behind a massive amount of the fanbase with their Vegas move.

Upside

Fortunately, the Raiders have fans across the nation and will record decent turnouts at any stadium, but they still may have walked away from one of the most intimidating home-field advantages in any sport. Comparatively, had the Raiders moved back to Los Angeles, the advantage would have remained the same.As someone who watched his first live Raiders game in Oakland, I was awestruck by not only the ratio of Raiders fans to Cardinals fans (October 22, 2006), but how intense the Black Hole truly became.

No Homefield

Due to the location of their new stadium, it is entirely possible the Raiders do not ever come close to that level of advantage again. Although Allegiant Stadium did not welcome fans in for games in 2020, the Raiders home record since moving sits at 7-10. Considering the Raiders have gone a combined 18-15 since 2020, this puts their away record at 11-5. Even though the move ripped a locally-beloved franchise from Oakland, the NFL is a business, and jumping to Nevada removed the state income tax factor from contract negotiations and earned the Raiders multiple primetime experiences throughout the 2022 season.

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New Building, No Advantage

Allegiant Stadium is beautiful and new, and its location encourages all Raiders fans to one day make a pilgrimage to their new home, but the Oakland fans deserved better. Over the years, the Raiders have jumped around California and their fans faithfully followed. The fans followed them to Nevada as well, but this time was different. Normally, staying in Oakland and Los Angeles allowed the Raiders to keep a bit of their identity as a tenacious team with tenacious fans. Meanwhile, Las Vegas with a shiny new stadium, seems to have taken the edge off.

Future Hope

“The Autumn Wind” has and will continue to be the head literary work of the Raiders. However, it cuts a little softer following the move. Watching the Raiders play in a behind-the-times, partial baseball field stadium played into the poem. Yet, moving from rags to riches has taken a bit of the grit off the team’s general identity.