The San Francisco Chronicle’s Matier and Ross have a paywalled article up about the Oakland Raiders‘ proposed Oakland stadium deal, but you can pretty much get the gist from the first, unpaywalled paragraph:
The deal to build the Raiders a new stadium in Oakland “is gurgling blood” — the only question being when it’s going to be declared dead, according to one Coliseum official close to the talks.
This is not at all a surprise, given that Raiders owner Mark Davis has been looking for something like $670 million worth of free land and infrastructure, and Oakland’s current elected officials haven’t been inclined to hand it over. (It doesn’t help that the guy supposedly brokering a deal has mostly been mouthing off about how the NFL should butt out, but the money is the real problem.) Now it sounds like things have completely broken down — I’m not clear on whether Davis even offered a bid for the stadium land like Mayor Libby Schaaf requested back in January — which really isn’t much different from talks not being broken down but nobody knowing how to pay for anything, except that one sounds marginally less bad.
This would all seem to argue for the Raiders moving to a new stadium in Carson soon, except that that plan requires the San Diego Chargers to go along with it as well, and they’re awaiting a counteroffer from San Diego this week. Plus, a Carson stadium has its own problems — even the mayor of Carson isn’t totally convinced the teams are serious about building it. It’s all gamesmanship at this point, in other words, so best not to take any statements too seriously, even if “gurgling blood” is pretty dramatic.
I am a life-long RAIDERS fan and I want the team to stay in Oakland but enough is enough. Mark Davis could have saved the RAIDERS, the city of Oakland and Alameda County a lot of time by simply saying: “I want a new stadium on the city and county’s dime and I will put up zero dollars towards the project.” End of story, right?
The city and county could have given MD his “Hell Naw” and he could have shopped his team to the city that would give him the same deal the Whiners got from Santa Clara. Instead, the fans are bombarded with vague suggestions as to what may or may not happen. If the RAIDERS are doomed to move to Los Angeles then so be it. I will swallow some razor blades to say “Los Angeles RAIDERS” but torturing Oakland RAIDER fans year after year has to end.
Random conversation I had with a coworker: You would think the NFL would prefer to keep the Raiders in Oakland. Two teams in NorCal, 2 teams in SoCal… similar to baseball (3 including the Padres.)
Just entertaining the thought, if the NFL REALLY wanted the Raiders to stay in Oakland, and the NFL has nearly a $50 billion market cap & bringing in +$10 billion in revenue annually….. couldn’t Mark Davis borrow a loan from the league? They have the money. The owners would vote on it, and it probably would pass when owners in cities like New York, Atlanta, Minnesota, etc. that recently gouged their taxpayers would obviously be against it. For as unrealistic as it is, Neil, could it ever work?
So, assuming this doesn’t get done- do they move to LA, Santa Clara, San Antonio, or?
harrylee773, Inglewood & Casron, California are the only 2 alternative developments at the moment… Santa Clara & San Antonio would be decent temporary destinations, but I don’t think the 49ers want anything to do with the Raiders, and I don’t thing the NFL wants a “lame-duck” franchise in San Antonio temporarily, which is why the go to bluff is LA… it would be permanent move so it’s gives the league that extra ‘uff’ when they through their weight around.
Oakland always lacks the leadership to get anything done, but I am at least happy that the city/county are not trying to give out the huge handout the raiders are asking for. City/County still owe $100m for renovations to the coliseum for the raiders and when the Warriors leave to SF they leave $60m debt owed for renovation to the arena. So either way we are still losing…
A lot of these “deal” that multiple develops have tried to work out for this land have included that they assume the debts, possibly a big wrench in any negotiation.
jordan: Mark Davis could borrow money from one of those quaint institutions called “banks” if he could pay the money back with new revenue. Given that he almost certainly couldn’t, why would the NFL want to loan him them money any more than George Bailey?
And as for where the Raiders will end up, my money’s on Oakland for another, while they wait to see if anyone can stanch the blood.