After spending decades in the aging Oakland Coliseum, Raiders players are finally getting to explore the modern NFL — and they’re not shy about the contrast.
For most of their existence, the Raiders called one of the NFL’s most notoriously aging venues home. The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum — opened in 1966 — became as much a symbol of the franchise’s gritty identity as the silver and black itself. Tarps covered the upper decks. Sewage famously backed up in the locker rooms. But it was theirs.
Then came Allegiant Stadium in 2020, a gleaming $2 billion domed palace on the edge of the Las Vegas Strip. And with it, a new vantage point. For Raiders players hitting the road in 2025, visiting other NFL stadiums no longer feels like escaping the worst venue in the league — it now comes with genuine appreciation, perspective, and plenty of comparison notes.
The Raiders.com travel guide for the 2025 season offered a revealing window into how players experience road venues — not as football critics, but as professionals who genuinely see stadiums differently after calling Allegiant home. The piece gathered first-hand reviews from Raiders past and present, each with personal history in the cities they’d be visiting.
“Gillette Stadium is really electric. Every time I think about it, the song ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ comes to my mind because they play it all the time, no matter what. It’s just their thing.”
— Adam Butler, Raiders DT (former New England Patriot, 2017–2020)
Butler was tasked with previewing Week 1 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough — a venue that opened in 2002, making it 36 years newer than the Coliseum the Raiders once called home. His enthusiasm for the place was palpable, reflecting a broader trend among Raiders players who now carry a different kind of appreciation when they step into modern NFL facilities.
A tour of the 2025 road schedule
Here’s how Raiders players broke down each away stadium they’d be visiting during the 2025 campaign:
Gillette Stadium — Foxborough, MA Week 1
Adam Butler praised the electric atmosphere and iconic music, noting the stadium had undergone updates since his days as a Patriot. He recommended stopping by 110 Grill for calamari and New England clam chowder.
Northwest Stadium — Landover, MD Week 3
Jeremy Chinn highlighted the passion of Commanders fans and the stadium’s electric energy, while pointing Raiders fans toward The Wharf in D.C. proper for food and pre-game atmosphere.
Lucas Oil Stadium — Indianapolis, IN Week 5
Kolton Miller’s memories of Lucas Oil go back to the NFL Combine — his first time in the building. He called it “an awesome place to play” and gave a strong endorsement of St. Elmo’s Steakhouse and its legendary horseradish cocktail sauce.
Arrowhead Stadium — Kansas City, MO Week 7
Missouri native Sam Webb described his first visit as a player as “unexplainable” — having grown up attending games there, now competing on the same field. His KC barbecue rankings: LC’s Bar-B-Q (#1), Gates (#2), Q39 (#3).
Empower Field at Mile High — Denver, CO Week 10
Colorado native and Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson talked up the altitude advantage for specialists and waxed poetic about the drive from Las Vegas through Utah mountain towns — “the most beautiful drive.”
SoFi Stadium — Inglewood, CA Week 13
A complex road game on many levels — SoFi was built on land where Al Davis once planned to build a Raider stadium. The Raiders have gone just 1-6 there, though Raider Nation famously travels well to Los Angeles.
The bigger picture: home matters
The Allegiant Stadium era has fundamentally shifted what the Raiders experience — and expect — from an NFL facility. The $2 billion domed venue, which drew 1.7 million fans in 2025 alone and has been the top-grossing stadium in the United States for two consecutive years, has given the Silver and Black a legitimate home to be proud of.
For a franchise that spent years playing in a venue dubbed one of the worst in professional sports, the shift is striking. Players now walk into opponent stadiums not with relief, but with a discerning eye — comparing atmospheres, amenities, and fan energy against their own state-of-the-art home.
“Every time we needed to use an image of the stadium for press, marketing or design, it would feel old and tired — the images, not the stadium. I keep thinking to myself: if you told me when I was a kid that I could go into the Raiders stadium whenever I wanted, walk around the whole building, on the field — I would have died with excitement.”
— Raiders team photographer, on Allegiant Stadium
Raiders owner Mark Davis has made no secret of the goal: make Allegiant Stadium an intimidating home-field advantage to match the franchise’s legendary fan base. With a 2025 schedule that included nine home games at Allegiant plus a de facto home game against the Chargers at SoFi, the opportunity has never been bigger.
As for those visiting stadiums? Raiders players seem to enjoy them — but they know where home is.
