Um, about that.

“I think the intentions are good,” NFL executive vice president Eric Grubman, the league’s point person on relocation, told USA Today on Tuesday at the NFL owners’ meetings. “But I don’t think there’s been any progress that suggests a breakthrough anytime soon.”

Grubman said the league had shot down past attempts at working with third parties like the Lott group. It didn’t fly then, and it’s not going to fly now.

AD

AD

“I think it’s a mistake to add third parties and fourth parties to what really should be a two-party negotiation,” Grubman said. “In this instance, you put someone who needs to profit and you may put other motivations in there. The core task is to find something that works for the Raiders and the community, and when you put developers in or other third parties, then you’re going to have there the things that are important to them in the conversation. And that’s what happened two years ago and one year ago and I think that’s what happening now.”

Still not convinced? Here’s Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News, who has been all over this story:

There is no reading between the lines here. The league would not have its main relocation guy speak on the record in such a clear-cut fashion — or allow other officials to speak anonymously yet bluntly about its shortcomings — unless it truly hated the deal. The message is pretty clear: City and county officials need to pony up, with less third-party involvement.

Raiders owner Mark Davis repeatedly has said he wants to move the team to Las Vegas, where state officials have promised him $750 million in public funds to build a new stadium near the Strip. The plan must get the approval of 24 of the league’s 32 owners and reportedly has the support of a number of them already, including Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who was the driving force in rallying ownership support of the Rams’ move to Los Angeles earlier this year. But other owners reportedly are wary over Las Vegas’s comparatively small population and whether tourists will truly make up a sizable portion of the team’s ticket base.