This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

If the Oakland Raiders move to Las Vegas, they will become the most successful major league sports franchise in the city's history.

Seriously, the Raiders will top the showing of the Utah Jazz in the 1980s. Having played 11 home games at UNLV's Thomas & Mack Center during the franchise's breakthrough season of 1983-84, the Jazz forever will have a place in Las Vegas lore. The Jazz may become known as the forerunner of NHL and NFL teams in the town, if the new T-Mobile Arena attracts an NHL expansion franchise and Mark Davis follows through in moving the Raiders to Las Vegas, with approval of the other football owners.

"Las Vegas Raiders" just sounds right to me. Those words go together better than "Utah Jazz," anyway. The names of other transient NFL franchises such as the Indianapolis Colts and St. Louis Rams never resonated with me, and now the Rams are back in Los Angeles where they belong. In Vegas, the renegade Raiders would be a great fit.

And that can only be good for Utahns, who definitely would take advantage of having pro football games within easy driving distance. The stadium the Raiders would help build also creates opportunities for neutral-site college football games involving Utah schools — BYU vs. Arizona is booked for Las Vegas in 2021 — and the annual Pac-12 championship game would be a prime event for the venue.

As for NFL games, traveling to Las Vegas is easier than going to Denver, as many Utahns already do. The distance is shorter and the road conditions are more favorable in November and December. No matter where the Las Vegas stadium is built, it would be much closer to the airport than Sports Authority Field is to Denver International Airport, which is practically in western Kansas.

Undoubtedly, many Utahns would become Raiders season-ticket holders. In 2012, Utah residents held 135 accounts with the Broncos, covering 402 tickets. Anecdotally, Utahns occupy seats on Sunday morning flights to Denver during the football season and Utah license plates are visible in the Broncos' parking lots.

It would be interesting to see how local CBS affiliate KUTV would handle the Las Vegas Raiders, possibly making them the regional pick over the Broncos in the Sunday afternoon slot. The competitive level of each team certainly would play into that decision.

Regardless of the size of the Raiders' following in Utah, having the NFL in Las Vegas would create easy access to visiting teams for Utahns, once or twice a year. The hazard is that ticket prices on the secondary market would be driven high, because so many fans of the opponents would make the trip to Las Vegas. That's why UNLV has always loved scheduling Wisconsin, for example, with Badger fans filling Sam Boyd Stadium.

It is tricky to project who will be playing for any team in 2019 or whenever the Raiders would play in Las Vegas. But imagine how many University of Utah fans would travel to watch former Ute quarterback Alex Smith, if he still played for rival Kansas City.

That's an example of the beauty of this potential arrangement. The Raiders would be there, when we wanted them or needed them, with no obligation. Same story with college basketball tournaments. If Utah is hot, having the Pac-12 tournament at T-Mobile Arena with plenty of tickets available is a cool thing. If the Utes or BYU or Utah State are not worth the effort of traveling to Las Vegas in a given year, that becomes someone else's problem.

And if the NFL thrives in Las Vegas, the Jazz will have played a part in the saga. As entrenched as the Jazz are in Salt Lake City now, it is crazy to think the franchise once was so desperate to generate revenue that owner Sam Battistone moved nearly one-fourth of the 1983-84 home schedule to Las Vegas. Jazz executive Dave Checketts ended the failed experiment after two games of the '84-85 season and the team eventually took hold in Utah, thanks to Larry H. Miller's ownership.

The Jazz are a fixture now, part of life in Utah that we couldn't imagine doing without. The franchise fits perfectly in this market. So would the Raiders, in Las Vegas.

Twitter: @tribkurt