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With the NFL having to scale back the 2020 draft because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis would jump at the next opportunity to host the event.
“Absolutely,” Davis said at getting a second chance, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal‘s Vincent Bonsignore. “At some point in time Las Vegas is going to be able to take advantage of being Las Vegas and what we have to offer here. So we’d be beyond excited for that opportunity.”
Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s executive vice president of club business and live events, told reporters Tuesday that Las Vegas could be an option in 2022.
The NFL was forced to scrap its original plans for the draft in Sin City, announcing the showcase will still run April 23-25, albeit in a more limited form. All of the public events in Vegas tied to the draft were canceled.
The locations for the 2021 and 2023 drafts are already set. The 2021 edition is heading to Cleveland, and Kansas City, Missouri, will be the draft’s temporary home two years later.
Scheduling Las Vegas for 2020 lined up with the Raiders’ relocation to Nevada ahead of the upcoming season, but the coronavirus outbreak made that plan untenable. Casinos shut their doors indefinitely, leaving The Strip almost unrecognizable:
The city was going to put its stamp on the draft, with plans to have the players arrive to the red carpet by boat on the Bellagio’s fountains:
Perhaps that idea will only have to be shelved temporarily.
