NFL hypocrisy one possible reason for Adelson’s exit from Raiders stadium deal

HOUSTON — One train of thought insists that, while there weren’t any smoke-filled rooms with billionaires in fancy suits sitting around on red leather couches and puffing cigars while listening to Jerry Vale, NFL owners made their point clear, likely instead via text from their private jets:

They wanted no part of a deal that included a casino owner as a major investor in the proposed $1.9 billion, 65,000-seat domed stadium that would bring the Oakland Raiders to Southern Nevada.

We will get to the hypocrisy of such a stance in a moment.

Another side offers a less complex and yet no-less-significant premise: Raiders owner Mark Davis and Sheldon Adelson just couldn’t get a deal done.

The final result remains indistinguishable in that the family of Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Adelson on Monday withdrew as investors in the stadium.

For now, know this: If the Raiders can ultimately strike a lease deal with the Las Vegas Stadium Authority with an entity such as Goldman Sachs financing construction and making up the $650 million the Adelson family had pledged — earlier this month the team told the board as much would happen — the odds of getting those 24 votes needed for relocation certainly didn’t suffer with news of Adelson’s decision.

“My understanding is the Raiders and Mr. Adelson just couldn’t come to a deal on revenue sharing and how (Adelson) would recoup his investment,” said Clark County Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak. “I’m still hopeful, but someone is going to have to explain to me how if Sheldon wasn’t going to get the return and it’s the same deal, Goldman Sachs is. I never heard anything about this having to do with Sheldon being a casino owner. Not once.”

Reports in recent weeks intimated as much, with several suggesting owners believed Adelson wanted to acquire a path to a controlling interest in the Raiders. It’s one thing for the NFL to approve relocation for a team to a town built on gambling, but quite another to do so with the belief someone so close to that world could one day become the owner.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell even told Fox Sports talk show host Colin Cowherd last week that, “One thing we can’t ever do is compromise on the game. That’s one of the things we’ll do is to make sure the policies we’ve created, if we did in any way approve the Raiders, I don’t see us compromising on any of the policies.”

It all points to the latest example of the hypocritical farce that is the league’s go-to-the-wall attitude about sports gaming. Take away the ability for folks to bet on the NFL and the most powerful sports league in North America becomes, well, just another game.

“I don’t have anything to say about (the Adelson family pulling out),” Patriots owner Robert Kraft said at Opening Night for Super Bowl LI on Monday at Minute Maid Park. “I’m not talking about it.”

If owners indeed sent up smoke signals to Davis with the applied message (order) that he move away from Adelson and toward another financial option because of the gaming ties, even though the Raiders boss has consistently stated he intends on remaining in charge and has no desire to sell the team, it would fall in line with the antiquated thinking of those who run the league.

For his part, Adelson has said he wanted no stake in ownership and understood such a request would be a deal-breaker.

Adelson didn’t reach his standing in life by making bad deals, and he spoke in October about how much the Raiders were seeking when it came to the fine details.

Maybe, then, it’s as simple as there just not being enough coming back on his end to make it a reasonable venture.

More than anything, those in Las Vegas involved with the stadium deal have learned first-hand how powerful the NFL perceives itself and how greedy it can appear, mostly because it usually gets its way.

Some close to the Las Vegas Stadium Authority said board members were shocked at the details of the Raiders’ proposed lease agreement — which included rent of $1 annually and didn’t do UNLV any favors in terms of scheduling and field markings.

They shouldn’t be. It’s the NFL, a metropolis of cupidity.

But you’re still talking about a deal with a record $750 million in public money, which, for a league that has trumpeted the desire for such funding when new facilities are built, favors Davis getting the votes when owners gather in Arizona in March.

If he truly wants to be in Las Vegas, the path remains clear — assuming he really has another way to deliver the $650 million.

We just know it won’t come from the Adelson family, whether Davis just wouldn’t give up enough on his end to make the deal, or his fellow owners, for their own hypocritical reasons, demanded he not.

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

Contact columnist Ed Graney at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on “Seat and Ed” on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.