Las Vegas became a two-sport major league town Monday and the Vegas Golden Knights owner seems a bit perturbed by that.
Bill Foley, who laid down a $500 million fee to the NHL to create an expansion team in Sin City and is privately funding the Golden Knights’ stadium, publicly congratulated Raiders owner Mark Davis on that team’s approved relocation. Then Foley questioned the move on the radio program Vegas Hockey Hotline with Brian Blessing.
“I felt like there were a lot better ways to spend $750 million than bringing the Raiders to Las Vegas,” said Foley, the Golden Knights chairman and CEO. “We could spend it on police, firefighters and teachers and have them all be the best in the country. But I guess we’re going to spend it on the Raiders. … If I had complete control of the situation, I would not have opted to have the Raiders come here. But I didn’t, so I welcome them.”
Foley did indeed welcome the Raiders in a statement released earlier Monday.
“On behalf of the entire Vegas Golden Knights family, I would like to welcome and congratulate Mark Davis and the Oakland Raiders on their relocation to the great city of Las Vegas,” Foley said. “It truly is an exciting time to be from Las Vegas. There is only a select group of cities in North America that are home to both an NHL and an NFL franchise and Vegas is now one of them. This alone should be a great source of pride for our community and our fans. Las Vegas has always been one of the most popular destination cities in the world and it is now emerging as a premier location for major league professional sports.”