As the second Jon Gruden era begins in Oakland, the Raiders continue to attempt to gain a foothold in Las Vegas while their new stadium is being built. They are going to play in the Bay Area this season, but beyond that, there are no guarantees just yet.
The team does not have a surefire 2019 home. The Raiders’ lease with the Oakland Alameida Coliseum expires after the 2018 season, but their goal is to remain there for 2019, Vincent Bonsignore of the Orange County Register notes.
While UNLV’s home venue — Sam Boyd Stadium — was once seen as a possible contingency plan in case the Raiders and Oakland could not make a lame-duck situation work, that no longer appears to be the case. Bonsignore writes no temporary stadium solution exists in Vegas, so unlike the Rams and Chargers, the Raiders are sticking around in their longtime market while their domed site is being constructed. The 2020 season has been mentioned as the goal for that stadium’s unveiling, but Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk notes that still isn’t certain.
And if the Raiders are unable to come to terms with Oakland on another lease to play at their 50-plus-year-old stadium for the 2019 season, Bonsignore expects San Diego and San Antonio to surface as possible stopgap home sites.
“As far as the gap between the announcement of the move and the actual moving into the stadium, it’s a tough one,” Mark Davis said, via Bonsignore. “But we want to try and bring a championship to the Bay Area, if we do, that will be fantastic. If we don’t, I can assure you we will have given it all we could to make that happen.”
The Raiders in September 2017 were discussing a lease extension with the city of Oakland for a possible plan to play both the 2019 and ’20 seasons there, in the event a construction delay occurs preventing the team from moving to Las Vegas until 2021. But with those talks being reported nearly 10 months ago, and no such agreement known to have taken place, it adds to the uncertainty surrounding the Raiders’ home following the 2018 campaign.
Davis maintains the eventual exit from Oakland will be agonizing, but he doesn’t regret his decision to relocate after Nevada provided the public funding — a record $750MM — Oakland didn’t.
“It all came down to the public entities and where they felt their efforts should be placed. And obviously we didn’t rank No. 1,” Davis said. “(Oakland) took the approach that why should we give you money? And it was never about them giving us money. And I’ve said that a number of times. All we ever asked for was help to stay in the Bay Area. It’s the most beautiful place in the world. We’ve got the greatest fans in the world up there. But we needed a place that would allow us to compete financially with the rest of the NFL.”
Hey Oakland, grow a pair and kick this Power Ginger to San Diego or San Antonio for a year! Stop letting the Davis Family treat you like a stepchild. If your spouse was leaving you for another would you let him stay in your house while he builds a mansion for his/her next significant other? The East Bay deserves so much better than these two timing clowns. Deadbeat Owner!
How is Jimmy Johnson’s Ghost around while Jimmy Johnson is alive?
What if it snows on Tuesday? Does it still rain too?
I can’t help but feel that if one team left (raiders) and another team wants to leave (Athletics)….maybe the problem is with the city?
Oakland didn’t crack the top 50,000 cities in the world to live in?
It’s not Oakland that’s the problem… most of these owners (A’s included) are billionaires but will move their teams to whichever desperate city will pony up the most tax dollars for their shinny new stadiums instead of private finance. Screw Oakland and the very loyal Raider Nation, Mark Davis can get a new stadium in Vegas on someone else’s dime. Until the NFL/MLB step in and put a stop to this the fans will continue to get hosed.
Well said. If you have a minute, go see what’s happening to the Columbus Crew in the MLS.
Take any economics class and about 2 days in you will say “oh” and shut up.
Mainstream economics is almost taught as a religion in the US, one with doctrine – “This is how an economist thinks.” – and heresies that were beneath our notice. My econ professors didn’t even know enough to talk about capitalist development strategies used by Japan, Taiwan or South Korea, let alone socialist economic strategies, historical protectionism as used by first Britain and then the US, or Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI). If it wasn’t neo-liberal, free market, free trade, minimal regulation economics, they were clueless, and I doubt they were outliers in the field.
So what economics class did you take that they got to talk about the Raiders?
“Piracy in the Mercantile Age.”
St. Louis??