The NHL chose Las Vegas for a number of reasons. First and foremost, there are people who call Las Vegas home who have money to burn. If there is one thing that spots leagues want is a potential owner who has money in a city that has money. There is plenty of money in Vegas. Most people leave with a lot less than they came with. There are other reasons as well. For example, Vegans have been strong supporters of minor league hockey for many decades. The NHL believes that it can succeed there.
And yes, the NHL owners did consider the possibility that the Raiders would make the move to Las Vegas. Obviously, that is not a concern, or at least not a deal breaker. It could be because they do not believe that NFL owners will approve the move. Or, they don't look at the Raiders as a threat to their likelihood of success. My hunch is that it is the latter. Here is why.
First of all, the Las Vegas metro has 2 million people, and is approaching the size of Pittsburgh, a city with both an NFL and NHL franchise...and a MLB franchise. Las Vegas is not exactly a city that is overloaded with sports teams right now. The door of opportunity is open.
Second, the NHL and NFL regular seasons overlap a little, but only for about 2 and 1/2 months. From January to April, the NHL will not compete against the NFL. For more than half of the NFL season, the Raiders would not compete against the NHL franchise.
Third, during that season-overlap time, the NHL can ovoid scheduling home games on Sunday, Monday and Thursday. I think that the NFL puts out their schedule earlier enough for the NHL to avoid scheduling games that conflict with the NFL teams in the same cities of NHL teams.
Fourth, there are hockey fans that don't care for football and visa versa.
Fifth, if market size was the only thing that mattered to the success of a sports franchise, the US sports leagues would all look like the English Premier League, where half the league resides in three cities. (In the EPL it's London, Manchester and Liverpool...In the US it would be six cities, New York, LA, Chicago, Houston, Dallas and San Francisco).
In conclusion, I do not think the NHL expansion team is a good reason to prevent the Raiders from relocating to Las Vegas.
