SAN FRANCISCO (AP/KRON) — Oakland civic leaders and deep-pocketed investors fighting to keep the Raiders from moving insist they are still in the game despite team owner Mark Davis formally applying to the NFL to relocate to Las Vegas.
A local investment group that includes Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott said Thursday they continue to negotiate with government officials, the team and the NFL to build a $1.25 billion, 55,000-seat stadium in Oakland.
“We are in this game and we are playing to win,” Lott’s group said in a statement. The statement said the Raiders’ filing Thursday was expected and done to “keep its options open in Las Vegas.”
The Raiders have been seeking to replace their dilapidated home for years. The Coliseum has suffered from sewage backups and other infrastructure problems. It’s also the only remaining NFL stadium to also be home to a baseball team — the Athletics — and lacks many of the modern, money-making features of new stadiums.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf has been negotiating with Davis and investors to find a new home for the team in the city, but has said public financing is not an option.
Schaaf didn’t respond to requests for comment Thursday.
The city and Alameda County still owe a combined $100 million for upgrades made to the stadium in 1995 to lure the Raiders back to Oakland after the team spent the 14 previous years playing in Los Angeles. The city and county were left holding the bag after personal seat licenses failed to cover the cost of the $220 million renovation that added more than 10,000 seats and luxury boxes.
The city is willing to give the team 60 acres of land on the Coliseum site to build a new stadium.
The local investors are competing with a Las Vegas plan that calls for $750 million in hotel room tax revenue, $650 million from billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson’s company and $500 million from the Raiders and the NFL.
League owners are expected to vote on the proposed move in March.
Local boosters argue that Oakland offers a better football venue than Las Vegas, a transient tourist town with no professional football history. They say the San Francisco Bay Area’s television market dwarves the Las Vegas region’s and that it will cost the team $500 million to relocate.
“I think we continue to offer a far superior deal,” said Scott Haggerty, president of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. Haggerty is also on the board that manages the Coliseum.
“I think that Mark Davis has been very patient in trying to come up with a stadium plan and I don’t blame him for keeping his options open,” Haggerty said. “But the Raiders belong in Oakland.”
Haggerty and others also say that a Raiders move out of the region threatens to alienate fans who re-embraced the team after it left Oakland after the 1981 season and played for 14 years in Los Angeles only to move back to the Bay Area.
Davis has said the team will continue to play in Oakland until the Las Vegas stadium is finished, likely by the 2020 season. The Raiders have two one-year options to play at the Oakland Coliseum in 2017 and 2018 and are already taking season ticket renewals for next season.
“I’m incredulous this could happen again,” said 57-year-old Jim Zelinski, a lifelong Oakland resident and Raiders fan. “I’m disgusted, to be quite frank.”
Nonetheless, Zelinski has co-founded a fan organization that is lobbying the Raiders and the NFL to keep the team in Oakland.
“We want to combat the narrative that most Raider fans are neutral and don’t care if the team moves to Las Vegas,” said Zelinski, who must decide by next month if he wants to renew his season tickets. “The Raiders need to do the right thing.”
Here is a statement on the Raiders by the Fortress and Lott group.
“The action today by the Oakland Raiders was expected. The team is doing what it needs to do to keep its options open in Las Vegas.
“The Fortress and Lott group remain diligently focused on providing a plan and solution to the Raiders to remain in Oakland.
“We are working on completing the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement with the City of Oakland and County of Alameda as our next step, which should be completed in the coming weeks. We will also be providing additional information and data to the Raiders and the NFL so that they can see there is a real and viable option to remain in Oakland. We are in this game and we are playing to win.
“Lastly, the more we work on this project, the more convinced we are that Oakland is the right place for the Raiders. In one of the top 5 markets in the county, with a new, World-Class stadium and an updated transit hub, we believe the Oakland Coliseum site will be one of the very best mixed use developments/sports complex in the Country—providing superior value and fan experience to the Raiders and the NFL.”
Schaaf has issued this statement:
“It’s no surprise that the Raiders have filed for relocation. Oakland welcomes the chance to show them and the NFL’s other owners why Oakland is the only home for the Raiders and always will be.
“Our winning team of the Lott Group, the County and my colleagues on the Oakland City Council has accomplished so much in the last few months. We’ve identified the mechanisms to responsibly finance public infrastructure improvements, we have in the Lott Group a private partner prepared to finance stadium construction, and we have an entitled site for a world-class NFL stadium and new development that enhances fan experience while invigorating East Oakland’s economy.
“But this isn’t all Oakland has to offer. Oakland’s Raiders stadium will be on the most transit-accessible site in the nation, in the sixth largest television market, and in one of the wealthiest and most innovative regions in the world. But above all else, Oakland has something no other city ever will — a die-hard fan base that is loyal and true to the Raiders and wants to see them stay here in Oakland where they were founded. Only Oakland brings the Raiders and the NFL a competitive stadium proposal, along with legacy and loyalty.
“I look forward to the League giving our team a chance to compete.”
___
For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL