Las Vegas Raiders in Cleveland tickets

The Las Vegas Raiders bring one of the NFL's most recognizable identities to one of its most distinctive settings. Founded in Oakland on January 30, 1960, as a charter member of the American Football League, the franchise has called three cities home: Oakland from 1960 to 1981, Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994, Oakland again from 1995 to 2019, and Las Vegas since 2020. NFL owners approved the Las Vegas relocation on March 27, 2017, and the move became official on January 22, 2020. Home games are now played at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada, a $1.9 billion domed venue adjacent to the Las Vegas Strip that the team shares with the UNLV Rebels football program. Raiders tickets here pair an NFL Sunday with everything the Strip offers minutes away, a game-day setup that exists nowhere else in the league. The early chapters in the desert have already produced a playoff berth, secured in the franchise's second Las Vegas season.

Few franchises stack history the way this one does. The team nearly debuted as the Oakland Señors, the winner of a 1960 name-the-team contest, before the franchise switched to the Raiders nine days later. The identity was forged by Al Davis, who arrived in 1963 as a 33-year-old head coach and general manager, immediately changed the colors to silver and black, and installed an aggressive downfield attack he called the vertical game. His slogans, "Commitment to Excellence" and "Just Win, Baby," are registered trademarks to this day. The team won three Super Bowls between the 1976 and 1983 seasons, claimed the 1967 AFL Championship, and has piled up 15 division titles across the AFL West and AFC West. The roll call of legends runs from Jim Otto, Gene Upshaw, Art Shell, and Ken Stabler through Marcus Allen, Howie Long, Bo Jackson, Tim Brown, and Charles Woodson. Seventeen players who made their primary mark with the Raiders are enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, a total that climbs to 31 when coaches and executives like John Madden, Tom Flores, and Davis himself are counted. The franchise has also produced three NFL MVPs: Ken Stabler in 1974, Marcus Allen in 1985, and Rich Gannon in 2002. One more tradition sets the team apart: the Raiders have never retired jersey numbers, so every number stays in circulation no matter how legendary its previous wearer.

Game days in Las Vegas carry a flavor all their own. Raider Nation, a phrase Al Davis created in 1968, stretches across the United States and around the world, and it includes a devoted Mexican fan base known as the Malosos, which translates to Bad Boys. Raiders fans are famous for showing up early, tailgating hard, and dressing the part in face masks and black outfits, a tradition that grew out of the Black Hole, sections 104 through 107 of the old Oakland Coliseum where the rowdiest fans held court from 1995 to 2019. Even the unofficial anthem is unmistakable: The Autumn Wind, a poem written by NFL Films co-founder Steve Sabol and narrated by John Facenda, has served as the Battle Hymn of the Raider Nation since 1974. The team's image has long transcended football too, from the Raiders' influence on the rap group N.W.A. to the song "Raider Nation" that Ice Cube recorded for the team in 2009. When AFC West rivals like the Kansas City Chiefs, Denver Broncos, and Los Angeles Chargers visit Allegiant Stadium, the building takes on an edge longtime fans will recognize instantly, and those divisional matchups are the games Raiders fans look forward to most.