Dolphins Owner Stephen Ross: “Teams Should Pay For Stadiums, Not Ask For Public’s Money”

The Oakland Raiders needed 24 of 32 NFL owner votes for the league to approve their relocation to Las Vegas. They got 31. The only owner to vote against the move? Stephen Ross of the Miami Dolphins.

Stephen Ross explaining his reasoning for the nay vote, saying he believes Raiders owner Mark Davis did not expend all of his options to get a stadium deal done in Oakland.

“I was more interested really in the fans in Oakland, and what a team means to the city,” Ross said. “That’s my primary concern. I think that’s who you take into consideration first. You have to exhaust everything to try and stay in a city.”

Ross walked the walk by shelling out $500 million for the major renovation to his team’s Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

“If you own a team, you should have the deep pockets to deliver. You need some public money for infrastructure and things like that. But with the costs of stadiums today, our country can’t afford to put all of the money in those things.”

Davis and the Raiders received an unprecedented $750 million in public funding to build a new stadium for the team in Las Vegas.

With the approval vote, each of the 31 owners will receive approximately $53 million as part of Davis’ relocation fee. Ross either predicted he would be receiving it anyway, or was clearly not interested in such.

(ESPN)