Are the Raiders and Las Vegas a bad match?

Mr. Sneelock · Post by **Mr. Sneelock** » November 9th, 2021, 12:37 pm

The Raiders have had some pretty public off-field problems lately. We have all heard about Henry Ruggs, and now this:

https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/ra ... k-2474494/

The thing about Vegas is that there are a million ways a young guy with cash can get into trouble. I know that can be said for most large cities, but the vibe in Vegas is that anything goes and "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."

I just wonder if Las Vegas is the best choice for a professional sports franchise.

Post by **aggies22** » November 9th, 2021, 1:08 pm

Mr. Sneelock wrote: ↑
November 9th, 2021, 12:37 pm
The Raiders have had some pretty public off-field problems lately. We have all heard about Henry Ruggs, and now this:

https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/ra ... k-2474494/

The thing about Vegas is that there are a million ways a young guy with cash can get into trouble. I know that can be said for most large cities, but the vibe in Vegas is that anything goes and "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."

I just wonder if Las Vegas is the best choice for a professional sports franchise.

I think it's more of a character issue thing. There are reasons that teams stay away from certain guys and for some reason the Raiders are drawn to them. It's like the organization truly believes in and embraces the whole "outlaw" stigma.

Yossarian · Post by **Yossarian** » November 9th, 2021, 1:30 pm

You don't get to be a billionaire by throwing money at barbers

ViAggie · Post by **ViAggie** » November 9th, 2021, 1:34 pm

My son was coached by a former NFL player who played for UNLV. He forbid his two sons from attending school there, insisting they would never get anything done with all the distractions and he was there in late 80's when it was pretty tame compared to today, there was not LV strip, that was all desert back in them days.

Post by **AGinNEIowa** » November 9th, 2021, 5:55 pm

I think the days of intentionally playing up the outlaw stigma is a thing of the past. I read an article the other day saying that LV GM said that they had taken a risk on Ruggs, knew he had a reputation for poor choices but thought they could work through issues with their staff and team relations.
Perspective- there's 2 of 53 with an issue this year. Imagine 4 Aggie FB players having an issue at this point and the SL Tribune posted an article saying that US is filled with outlaws and Logan was a bad place for a team. This board would go nuts with the whole anti UState bias complaint that we see between 2-10 times a week.

NVAggie · Post by **NVAggie** » November 10th, 2021, 9:18 am

Spoken like a Raiders fan. Ruggs was more than a knuckle head making a poor choice. He was drunk, driving at an incredibly high speed, and killed someone. That will always give your organization a black eye.

Yossarian · Post by **Yossarian** » November 10th, 2021, 10:54 am

NVAggie wrote: ↑
November 10th, 2021, 9:18 am
Spoken like a Raiders fan. Ruggs was more than a knuckle head making a poor choice. He was drunk, driving at an incredibly high speed, and killed someone. That will always give your organization a black eye.

Should it give the organization a black eye, though? Is that fair and rational to place part of the blame on this kid's actions on the organization? I would guess the Raiders don't condone drunk driving and manslaughter. Yes, they gave the kid a job, but that doesn't mean he has freedom to do what he wants outside of that job. If he had a history of drunken driving and erratic behavior and the Raiders hired him anyway, that would be one thing. I don't believe that is the case here though (I may be wrong and I will apologize if I am). This should lie squarely on the shoulders of the immature, reckless, selfish, punk that made the decision to drink to a point that his faculties were adversely affected, drive at a high rate of speed and kill another person. This decision and this crime are his and his alone. The Raiders and the NFL should not be blamed here.

NVAggie · Post by **NVAggie** » November 10th, 2021, 12:41 pm

The Raiders have only themselves to blame for their organizational persona. They created that many decades ago.

Mr. Sneelock · Post by **Mr. Sneelock** » November 10th, 2021, 2:41 pm

NVAggie wrote: ↑
November 10th, 2021, 12:41 pm
The Raiders have only themselves to blame for their organizational persona. They created that many decades ago.

And I guess that is part of my question. Does this long-standing organizational persona combined with the long-standing citywide persona of Las Vegas make for a volatile match?

NVAggie · Post by **NVAggie** » November 10th, 2021, 2:43 pm

I am saying yes.

swordsman1989 · Post by **swordsman1989** » November 12th, 2021, 7:44 am

Many professional sports leagues have resisted Las Vegas for a long time due to fear of the teams being influenced by sports betting. Many years ago, during UNLV's basketball heyday, there were regular news paper columns speaking about the fear of having a high profile college basketball program being located just a few blocks from The Strip. The fear was that gamblers and bookies could easily bribe a poor college athlete to throw the Final Four. I don't think that the fears and concerns are without merit, but I also don't know what really can be done about it.

ViAggie · Post by **ViAggie** » November 12th, 2021, 1:45 pm

swordsman1989 wrote: ↑
November 12th, 2021, 7:44 am
Many professional sports leagues have resisted Las Vegas for a long time due to fear of the teams being influenced by sports betting. Many years ago, during UNLV's basketball heyday, there were regular news paper columns speaking about the fear of having a high profile college basketball program being located just a few blocks from The Strip. The fear was that gamblers and bookies could easily bribe a poor college athlete to throw the Final Four. I don't think that the fears and concerns are without merit, but I also don't know what really can be done about it.

How much difference can a ref make to try and throw a game and not get caught blatantly calling a bad play? Seems like the other refs would have to be in on it, I know it's been done before during high stakes matches, but UNLV? Not worth the risk. And doesn't Nevada ban sports betting on a college games payed in their state? I seem to recall that was the issue, why can't they do that with pro-sports? Too much money at stake? Seems odd.

Intermeddler · Post by **Intermeddler** » November 13th, 2021, 3:52 pm

The Raiders are a bad match with civilized society and human decency.

swordsman1989 · Post by **swordsman1989** » November 14th, 2021, 10:06 am

ViAggie wrote: ↑
November 12th, 2021, 1:45 pm

swordsman1989 wrote: ↑
November 12th, 2021, 7:44 am
Many professional sports leagues have resisted Las Vegas for a long time due to fear of the teams being influenced by sports betting. Many years ago, during UNLV's basketball heyday, there were regular news paper columns speaking about the fear of having a high profile college basketball program being located just a few blocks from The Strip. The fear was that gamblers and bookies could easily bribe a poor college athlete to throw the Final Four. I don't think that the fears and concerns are without merit, but I also don't know what really can be done about it.
How much difference can a ref make to try and throw a game and not get caught blatantly calling a bad play? Seems like the other refs would have to be in on it, I know it's been done before during high stakes matches, but UNLV? Not worth the risk. And doesn't Nevada ban sports betting on a college games payed in their state? I seem to recall that was the issue, why can't they do that with pro-sports? Too much money at stake? Seems odd.

Refs can occasionally make bad calls. Not that hard to make a couple of bad calls without getting caught. My guess is it is when refs get greedy that they get caught, like that NBA ref a decade or so ago.

Regarding Nevada laws, they may be able to ban betting on college games played within the State, but all of the UNLV teams play around half of their games out of State. Looking specifically UNLV in the Tarkanian era, how hard would it have been for a bookie (is that spelling right?) to pull aside a UNLV player and offer him $100,000 to tank the Final Four game against Duke that is going to be played in Indianapolis?

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