National Football League

GoFundMe Campaign Starts To Bring Oakland Raiders To Las Vegas

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 1:32 p.m. ET

Fansided, Brittany Frederick/FanSided via Local POV

The Oakland Raiders’ stadium deal may have fallen through, but one fan has turned to crowdfunding to try and get the Silver and Black to Las Vegas.

The Oakland Raiders were headed to Las Vegas until two major investors pulled out of the team’s planned stadium deal. Now the NFL team is in limbo, but a rescue attempt emerged this week, sort of.

Raiders fan James Flynn has started a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign to build the proposed Raiders Stadium in Las Vegas. As of Tuesday night, the campaign has raised $630 of its $650 million goal.

Obviously the Raider Nation isn’t going to be able to bankroll an entire stadium, and Flynn told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he didn’t expect a serious campaign. He set up the GoFundMe as a satirical work and to show how excited he was about the idea of the Raiders in Sin City.

But when he saw people actually digging into their wallets to donate, he was taken by surprise and had to decide what to do with the money.

Flynn told the Review-Journal he plans to pay it forward, donating all the funds to charity; the company he works for in Las Vegas has a relationship with the Children’s Miracle Network, though he didn’t explicitly say that would be the charity of choice.

If you’re an NFL fan you have to admire his chutzpah (or his sense of humor). It’s clear that he’s a passionate Raiders supporter even if he was just messing around. The team could certainly use some kind of a boost as it tries to figure out what to do now that both Vegas magnate Sheldon Adelson and firm Goldman Sachs have walked away from the stadium deal.

And while this is one of a growing number of joke crowdfunding campaigns, at least Flynn is raising money for charity. That’s better than the guy who asked people to fund his potato salad.

You can view Flynn’s GoFundMe page here.

While the Oakland Raiders may not be coming to Las Vegas, there’s still plenty to do and much to see in the city. For events and happenings in Las Vegas, visit the Las Vegas section of Local POV here.