New Las Vegas RaidersPresident Sandra Douglass Morgan and team owner Mark Davis appear at a news conference at Allegiant Stadium on Thursday, July 7, 2022.
Published Thursday, July 7, 2022 | 1 p.m.
Updated Thursday, July 7, 2022 | 2:54 p.m.
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The Raiders both harkened back to their past and looked ahead to their future with the addition of team president Sandra Douglass Morgan on Thursday afternoon.
Team owner Mark Davis announced the hiring in a news conference at Allegiant Stadium, a move that goes down as trailblazing with Morgan becoming the first Black woman to serve as a team president in the NFL. The Raiders have long championed diversity, from hiring the first Black head coach in Art Shell in 1989 to making Amy Trask the first female CEO of an NFL team in 1997.
Morgan, a Las Vegas native who graduated from Eldorado High School and UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law, also gives the Raiders’ front office a distinct local touch as they head into their third season since relocating here. Those who had been running the organization alongside Davis over the last two years were holdovers from when the team was in Oakland, Calif., with strong ties to the Bay Area.
“As a local who grew up here, this is a dream come true,” Morgan said while sitting next to Davis at the news conference. “This wouldn't have been possible for someone in Las Vegas to have an opportunity to lead a professional sports organization more than three years ago.”
Morgan has previously served in several high-profile local roles, including perhaps most notably as the chairwoman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board from 2019 to 2021. She’d also been a part of the Nevada State Athletic Commission and worked as the city attorney for North Las Vegas.
Like in her role with the Raiders, Morgan was the first Black woman to hold her positions as gaming board chairwoman and city attorney.
“I definitely never want to be the last and I want to get to a point where there are no more firsts,” Morgan said. “The impact that this has is not lost on me. I definitely would tip my hat to all of the prior women that were leaders and visionaries, and if I could be an inspiration or help open doors for any other woman and girl out there, then that's an incredible accomplishment for me. The importance and effect is not lost on me, and I know that sports is a male-dominated industry, just as gaming was, and we need to continue to break down these barriers.”
Davis called it a “great and historic” day for the Raiders. He also must hope it’s one that starts a period of stability and calm that’s eluded the president role and the franchise as a whole in recent years.
Morgan will be succeeding Dan Ventrelle, who served as interim president last season before abruptly leaving the team in May. Ventrelle said he was fired after bringing up concerns of a hostile work environment, one that was later detailed in a New York Times piece.
That came a few months after he assisted, as part of Davis’ inner circle, in hiring the Raiders’ new power duo of general manager Dave Ziegler and coach Josh McDaniels.
Those roles were open in the aftermath of the Jon Gruden e-mail scandal, which caused the former coach to resign from his position in the middle of last season.
Ventrelle had assumed his own role via upheaval, when previous team president Marc Badain left with little forewarning shortly before last season. Badain was instrumental in the relocation of the Raiders to Las Vegas and construction of Allegiant Stadium, but Davis said he left because of “accounting irregularities,” according to the Times.
“It's no secret that this organization has faced some recent challenges, but I want to be clear: I am not here to sweep anything under the rug or avoid problems or concerns that need to be addressed,” Morgan said. “The fact is, I have accepted this role because I believe in the promise of the Raiders, I believe in the future of the Raiders, and I believe in this organization's tenants of community, integrity, and most of all, commitment to excellence.”
Morgan said her first priority will be meeting with every team employee at the Raiders’ headquarters in Henderson. She got a head start Thursday morning, speaking to everyone in the office as well as meeting with Ziegler, McDaniels and some of the players around before next week’s start of training camp.
She made a positive impression on team captain Maxx Crosby, as the Pro Bowl edge rusher attended her news conference and posed for pictures with her family — including her husband, Ron Morgan, a former safety for the Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals.
“She’s confident,” Crosby said of what stood out about Morgan. “I could tell from the moment I met her. She’s just the right person for the job.”
Davis said he interviewed several qualified candidates over nearly a year since Badain left, but he kept coming back to Morgan. She had been practicing law with Covington & Burling LLP, as well as serving on the board of Raiders’ partners Caesars and Allegiant.
Morgan is also the vice chair of the Las Vegas Super Bowl host committee, an event she estimated on Thursday would bring billions of dollars in economic impact when it comes to town in 2023. She quoted Allegiant Stadium as having already accounted for $2.29 billion in economic impact.
She’ll now play a large role in trying to build those numbers while solidifying the Raiders’ place in her hometown.
“The Las Vegas connection was not a criteria, but it was something that was on the positive side of the ledger,” Davis said. “Obviously, somebody that knows this community, knows the people in it I think is very important for us to continue to build our foundation in Las Vegas. We've been here really about four, four and a half years trying to build bridges within the community and everything else, and I think having Sandra here, who knows the community as well as she does, is going to be a very important part of helping that process.”
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or
