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Over cold beers and Mountain Dews and piles of sticky chicken wings at a Millcreek restaurant, Steve Gerber and a group of his silver-and-black clad friends were discussing an important decision for their favorite team.
The Oakland Raiders owned the 14th pick in the NFL draft and, after 13 consecutive losing seasons, there were plenty of holes to fill. Should they grab an offensive lineman to help protect their promising young quarterback? How about a defensive back to replace their recently retired star corner?
But that wasn't the big decision facing Raider Nation.
With little hope of getting a new stadium built in Oakland — and after striking out (at least initially) on a move back to Los Angeles — the Raiders appear to seriously be considering leaving for Las Vegas. And as they watched the draft last week, the prospect of having the team they love move closer to them had Gerber and his friends smiling like they'd been given a do-over on JaMarcus Russell.
"If they move to Vegas," said Gerber, a lifelong Raiders fan who lives in Sandy, "I will buy season tickets."
A move to Sin City seemed to gain serious traction late last month when Raiders owner Mark Davis pledged $500 million toward a proposed $1.4 billion stadium near the Vegas Strip. If the deal, which would involve some $750 million in public financing, can be consummated, it would put an NFL franchise closer than ever to the Utah border. That has football fans around the Beehive State hopeful they'll soon be able to pile into their cars on weekends and head south for more than buffets and blackjack.
"That would be awesome. It's so close to my hometown," said McKade Christensen, a lifelong St. George resident who already makes monthly trips to Vegas. "I've never been to an NFL game in a stadium. I've just always watched on TV. To be able to go down and support a local team would be a cool opportunity."
It's a longer haul, of course, from the Wasatch Front. But the trip to Las Vegas would be about two hours shorter than to the nearest NFL city. Salt Lake is roughly 500 miles from Denver's Sports Authority Field, 700 miles from the University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona, and 850 miles from CenturyLink Field in Seattle.
It's safe to say, thanks largely to proximity, that Utah bleeds mostly Bronco orange and blue on Sundays. According data released last year by the ticket vendor Vivid Seats, Utahns bought more tickets for Broncos games than for any other team in the league. The top-selling NFL jersey at Dick's Sporting Goods stores in the state? Peyton Manning's.
But even some Broncos fans in Utah would welcome a Raiders' move.
On Super Bowl Sunday this year, Walt Burdette, of Roosevelt, watched and cheered as his favorite team won its third championship. He was wearing a Broncos T-shirt. Rupert, his German shepherd, was wearing one, too. And if the Raiders moved to Vegas, he said, he would change allegiances.
Sure, Burdette's home in the Uinta Basin is closer to Colorado than Nevada, but you could say he's a fair-weather fan and the average high for Vegas in December is 58 degrees.
"I'm not a real hardcore fan, but I like the Broncos because they're close," he said. "I've been over to a couple of their games. … The last time we went we froze our butts off."
Denver diehards, of course, wouldn't dream of rooting for the hated Raiders. But a chance to watch their team in one of the world's top tourist destinations — a city that's already a mainstay for many Utahns — is enticing for some.
Vegas is already home to Pac-12, Mountain West and West Coast Conference basketball tournaments. When Utah and BYU met in the Las Vegas Bowl last December, the game sold out in less than 24 hours.
"When you go, everybody on the freeway is flying their Ute flags," said Gerber, who is also a Utah football season-ticket holder. "I'd love to see the same thing when there are Raider games."
Gerber is a Raiders lifer, a fan since before the AFL-NFL merger. He has a "shrine" of memorabilia on display in his Sandy home. When he was younger, he got the name of his girlfriend tattooed on his left arm. Years later, with the girlfriend long gone and her name badly faded, he covered it up with the Raiders' logo.
"It was a Broncos fan that did it," Melissa, his wife of 25 years, said. "It was very painful for [the tattoo artist] to do it."
Not all will be so gung-ho.
If the Raiders were to move, the NFL would first have to sign off on a city it has long derided because of its legal sports betting.
And in Nevada, meanwhile, there should be serious questions about the proposal put forward by Davis and Las Vegas Sands Corporation chairman Sheldon Adelson. The group has asked for more than $750 million in public funding, likely raised by hiking tourism taxes. That would mean more expensive hotel rooms, rental cars and cab rides.
One Utah Raider fan, however, had a plan that would have helped him avoid getting dinged on football trips to Vegas. Jake Sobotka Heaps watched Bo Jackson dice up defenses as a kid and fell in love. Now he is the president of the Raiders' One Nation booster club in Utah and would welcome a chance to be closer to his favorite team.
"I could just pitch a tent and live down there during the season," he said as he watched last week's draft with friends.
The woman sitting next to him, however, smiled and shook her head.
"Your wife," said Tracie Tucker-Heaps, "could not."
Twitter: @aaronfalk —
Raiders Q&A
Why do the Raiders want to move? • O.co Coliseum is a half-century old and the franchise is looking for funding to build a new home, which may very well mean leaving Oakland. Owner Mark Davis and Las Vegas Sands Corporation chairman Sheldon Adelson are currently in talks with city and state officials about the possibility of building a $1.4 billion stadium a short distance from the Las Vegas strip.
What's the latest? • In a meeting late last month with Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee, Davis pledged $500 million toward the project. Adelson's corporation has promised another $150 million. That leaves a $750 million balance that city and state officials would have to agree to make up.
Where would the money come from? • The Nevada legislature would likely have to approve an increase to the tourism tax, which would mean more expensive hotel rooms, cab rides and rental cars.
What other hurdles must be cleared? • The NFL has long eschewed the idea of moving a team to Vegas because of the city's legal sports betting. Meanwhile, the site Davis and Adelson are currently proposing for the stadium has drawn concerns from the city's airport officials that a stadium there may limit flights on certain runways, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.