The Las Vegas Raiders are switching things up for this year's training camp. The Raiders are heading to Costa Mesa in Orange County for 18 days of training camp. Veterans will report Tuesday and will break on August 9th. However, because of NFL policy, the team is not allowed to promote their training camp in the area.
According to NFL policy, Las Vegas must respect the media rights of the league's two Los Angeles-based teams in their home territory.
“Every club has an exclusive home territory extending 75 miles in all directions from the exterior corporate borders of the city for which it holds a franchise,” per league policy. “If another club holds its preseason training camp within that exclusive territory then it cannot be marketed locally.”
The Raiders setting up their training camp in opposing territory reportedly irked both the Rams and Chargers. However, both teams declined to officially comment on the situation.
Las Vegas media can cover the camp, but there can be no invites for Los Angeles or Orange County-based media. The team also cannot run any billboards, newspaper ads, or radio commercials related to their training camp. These practices will also not be open to fans, aside form select season-ticket holders, sponsors, and invited guests.
“That's where we're having camp,” Raiders owner Mark Davis told ESPN, “but the Chargers and Rams have the ability to block us from [promoting.] It's fine.”
Davis continued by saying that “it would be nice if all the fans could be there” but once again noted that both teams have the ability to block that from happening.
Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce suggested moving training camp
This may cause you to wonder: why are the Raiders moving their training camp to a new location in the first place?
The move is reportedly head coach Antonio Pierce's idea. Pierce grew up 30 miles away near Compton. He believes team bonding is a huge benefit of the move.
“It's about team bonding,” Pierce said. “When I played … we never stayed at our facility. I was used to traveling and going away and kind of [being] bunkered up, 90 or 85 players at a time, or whatever it was. And team bonding, getting together and getting to know one another, to get away from all the distractions. It's all about ball. Just ball.”
Mark Davis agrees that it is a smart move.
“The best part of not doing it in Las Vegas is the bonding,” Davis said. ” … When camp is here [in Henderson], the vets, the ones that have homes here, they go home and see family. When you're away at camp, you're together. That kind of bonding.”
Davis added that this training camp move was “something Antonio wanted to go after.”
We hope that this move translates to the win-loss column for the Raiders in 2024.
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