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Oakland Raiders seek NFL's blessing for move to Las Vegas

(Adds comment from analysts, confirmation from team) By Alex Dobuzinskis Jan 19 (Reuters) - The NFL's Oakland Raiders filed paperwork with the league on Thursday to move to Las Vegas following months of negotiations to build a new stadium in Nevada, officials said. The National Football League said in a statement the Raiders' application would be reviewed in the coming weeks by its staff and stadium and finance committees. The relocation of a franchise requires approval from three-quarters of the league's 32 owners. Raiders owner Mark Davis, whose late father Al Davis helped burnish the team's outlaw reputation, has expressed dissatisfaction with the aging Oakland Coliseum and for much of last year pursued a possible move to Las Vegas. If the Raiders land in Las Vegas, they would become only the second major sports franchise ever based there. The National Hockey League's Golden Knights will begin playing in the city this fall. Concerns about possible game fixing in the gambling mecca once discouraged sports leagues from placing a franchise in Las Vegas. But with about 2 million people in the Las Vegas metropolitan area and with a number of regulations in place to prevent gambling from tainting competition, leagues have increased interest in the city, Rick Horrow, a visiting expert on sports business at Harvard Law School, said by phone. Also Nevada officials are offering $750 million in hotel taxes to help build a new $1.9 billion domed stadium in Las Vegas. The rest of the $1.15 billion would come from the Raiders and private partners that include Goldman Sachs Group Inc , said Jeremy Aguero of the firm Applied Analysis, who is serving as staff to the Las Vegas Stadium Authority. Last month, officials in Oakland, in a bid to keep the Raiders in town, voted to work with a group seeking to build a stadium in Oakland. But the $750 million in public funding offered in Nevada would "far outpace anything the folks in (California) are going to be able to pull together," David Carter, executive director of the Sports Business Institute at the University of Southern California, said by phone. Raiders spokesman Will Kiss in an email confirmed the team had applied to relocate but declined to comment further. Last week, the San Diego Chargers, who have also been unhappy with their stadium, announced they would move to Los Angeles this year. That decision follows last year's relocation of the St. Louis Rams to Los Angeles, giving the city two NFL teams. (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Alan Crosby and James Dalgleish)