Roger Goodell: NFL against casino interests owning franchises

HOUSTON — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday that no team owner can have any ownership stake in a casino, a proclamation aimed squarely at Las Vegas as the Oakland Raiders pursue relocation to a stadium suddenly in need of new investors.

“That is not something that’s consistent with our policies,’’ Goodell said during his televised State of the League address and news conference leading to Super Bowl LI. “Not likely a stadium (ownership role), either.’’

Last month, Goodell told Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd: “If we did in any way approve the Raiders’ move, I don’t see us compromising on any of the policies,’’ the commissioner told Colin Cowherd on his Fox Sports show.

Goodell said Wednesday: “We’ve always said that we are going to maintain the integrity of our game by making sure there is a separation between sports and gambling and the NFL.

“That is something we think is imperative. We want our fans to know that the game they’re seeing unfold on the field does not have any undue influence.’’

Mark Davis, the Oakland Raiders owner and general managing partner, applied last month to relocate the franchise to Southern Nevada.

A proposed Las Vegas stadium has $750 million in public financing already approved by the Nevada Legislature. The Raiders have committed $500 million toward the $1.9 billion, 65,000-seat dome. However, Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson, a driving force behind the proposal, on Monday withdrew his $650 million stadium investment. Las Vegas Sands operates The Venetian and Palazzo on the Las Vegas Strip in addition to other hotel-casinos.

The real dilemma for Las Vegas as a future NFL city, said Marc Ganis, who has advised NFL owners on new stadiums and related issues, has less to do with NFL policies regarding gambling and ownership than it does assembling an acceptable deal for all parties.

“If you’re asking me how it looks, well, it looked a lot better on Monday,’’ said Ganis, a Chicago-based co-founder of Sportscorp, Ltd., a sports consulting firm. “It doesn’t mean that the (Las Vegas) is dead but it needs a jolt.’’

“People were wondering why Adelson was putting up hundreds of millions of dollars (without having a stake in the team or the stadium).’’

Goodell said the league has not yet determined whether Las Vegas is a viable market for a franchise.

“That’s part of relocation process,” Goodell said. “That’s part of the relocation process. The Raiders submitted an application, it’s one that we’re considering carefully, but there’s a great deal of more work to be done.

“There are several elements with that. Financing of a stadium is just one. Obviously the stadium project itself. The depth of the market. All of those are things that we’ve studied over the last several months, but that will increase in intensity over the next month or so as we move forward in that process.”

With the most recent developments, the talk of San Diego becoming an alternative for Davis, if Las Vegas doesn’t work out as the Raiders’ new home, gained traction this week.

However, Goodell scuttled that idea Wednesday. The commissioner said the NFL remains “disappointed’’ that the Chargers left for Los Angeles last month, but that did not change something of material importance to owners: In 15 years, San Diego never found a way to replace outdated Qualcomm Stadium.

The Review-Journal is owned by the family of Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson.

Jon Mark Saraceno can be reached at jsaraceno@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jonnysaraceno on Twitter.