Oakland Raiders won’t meet deadline for stadium deal
By John Buhler
The Oakland Raiders reportedly won’t hit their Wednesday deadline for a financial plan on a new stadium, as city officials don’t want to burden taxpayers.
Rachel Swan of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a report that the Oakland Raiders and the City of Oakland will not meet the NFL’s demands for a plan to finance a new stadium in Oakland/Alameda County. The NFL mandated that the league’s three teams with stadium uncertainty (Oakland, the San Diego Chargers, and the St. Louis Rams) submit a proposal by Wednesday.
City officials are hesitant towards putting any of this financing on its taxpayers, as Swan brings to light that “Oakland and Alameda County are still wallowing in debt from a massive overhaul of the Coliseum’s east end in 1996. Together, they pay $22 million a year to retire what remains of that debt –some $100 million.
Raiders owner Mark Davis inherited the football team from his deceased father and team founder Al Davis a few years ago. The Davis Family’s sole source of revenue is through the Raiders organization. The late Davis moved the franchise from Oakland to Los Angeles in 1982 over similar stadium issues, only to have the Raiders return to Oakland in 1994.
There reportedly is a 169-acre sight available in the county, but Alameda and Davis are at odds with how the land should be allocated. Alameda County wants to “turn the land into a ‘Coliseum City’ retail corridor filled with hotels and offices that would generate tax revenue for the city.”
Davis would prefer to have more parking for tailgating. He said, “What’s being proposed is the Raiders build a stadium on a little corner of a parking lot on a 60-acre site.”
The Raiders may look to get into a joint venture with Coliseum co-tenant, the MLB’s Oakland A’s. The A’s have reportedly looked at 10 sites of interest for building a new stadium.
The Raiders may end up relocating to Los Angeles with AFC West rival San Diego if the NFL owners approve of Davis’ and Chargers owner Dean Spanos’ bid. This may entice the city to back funding for a new stadium should the Raiders be on the way out of Oakland.
This report says that the Raiders are going to be the least cooperative if the three teams potentially bidding on the rights to relocate to Carson, California in possibly a joint stadium deal.