Raiders Apply For "Las Vegas Raiders" Trademark, Release Stadium Renderings

None of this means a Raiders’ move is any closer to reality—we already know Mark Davis wants a new stadium or to get the hell out of Oakland, and the mean ol’ NFL won’t let him go to Los Angeles, and he doesn’t have to money to build a new place on his own—but these are two moves that, if the Las Vegas Raiders ever exist, were going to have to happen.

Darren Heitner at Forbes reports that on Aug. 20, the Raiders filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the word mark “Las Vegas Raiders,” for a whole host of potential uses:

Also today, the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee, ahead of a meeting tonight on a proposed Raiders stadium in Las Vegas, published a report featuring renderings of the building—and cost and funding estimates.

I know you want to see the shiny drawings, but please note that this stadium will cost $1.9 billion dollars. One point nine billion! The Vikings’ new stadium, which was constructed in the middle of downtown, “only” cost $1.01 billion.

But you can go all-out with the expenses when they’re being picked up by taxpayers. The proposed funding arrangement includes, as previously reported, $750 million in public money. That’s a record. (Private investment will cover another $650 million, leaving the Raiders, with the help of cash and a cushy loan from the NFL, to pick up merely $500 million of their own.)

Earlier this week, Sen. Harry Reid spoke out in support of the stadium, but he’ll be retiring at year’s end, so funding isn’t his problem.

The infrastructure committee is expected to present its nonbinding recommendation on the funding proposal sometime next month. Here, look at some pictures: