The Popcorn Stand: Hard to keep up with Gold Sacks Raiders

The old fuddy, duddy tried to decompress and take a few days in which I didn’t pay attention to any news but in today’s society that’s impossible.

There was a headline scrolling across the bottom of the screen on some cable news channel that stated Raiders stadium Trumped or something or other. Then another headline scrolled across the bottom of the screen that stated Gold Sacks Adelson or something or other.

I think I was in a restaurant at the time. That’s the problem I admit I have. While I’m trying to eat my meal, I can’t keep my eyes off of just one of many television screens in the restaurant and I just catch bits and pieces of garbled messages that appear on the screen.

Apparently, Sheldon Adelson was upset with the Raiders offering $1 a year in rent to use their new Taj Mahal, err, stadium in Vegas and as far as I’m concerned, I don’t blame Adelson.

I’m normally not into conspiracy theories or paranoid, but again remember the saying, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean it’s not true. Apparently Goldman Sachs was some kind of backup to Adelson and I thought why would there need to be a backup to Adelson unless somebody knew Adelson would be justifiably upset the Raiders would offer less than a tip to play at their new Taj Mahal, would pull out, and a backup would be needed.

But then Goldman Sachs pulled out and now apparently there’s no backup to the backup.

The Raiders, though, are apparently still planning to come to Vegas and why not. I hope I’m wrong, but it looks like another case of the Oakland-San Antonio-Ingelwood-Irwindale-Los Angeles-Las Vegas Raiders looking to pull another fast one, looking to pay Vegas and the state $1 a year in rent while leaving Vegas and the state holding a $650 million or so bag.

And UNLV can’t be too happy about this as it will be saddled with a way-too-big stadium for its needs instead of a smaller stadium which would have been just fine. (Unless of course, UNLV also gets to pay $1 a year to use the stadium).

I think it’s going to be kind of embarrassing if the gambling Mecca of the world gets suckered by the Raiders, although the city wouldn’t be the first entity to be suckered by the Raiders.

But hopefully when it comes to the Raiders shenanigans, this will be the last time. So in other words, what happens in Vegas will stay in Vegas.

— Charles Whisnand