It has been well documented that Mark Davis recently travelled to San Antonio to meet with city officials to discuss a potential move. Will the Silver and Black soon be named the San Antonio Raiders? Don’t count on it.
The Raiders’ lease at the O.co Coliseum expires after this season, and Mark Davis still hopes to build a new stadium near the old one. Davis does not want to continue sharing the stadium with the Oakland A’s for several reasons, one being that he does not want his team playing on a dirt infield anymore. The A’s however recently extended their lease for another ten years. The agreement between the A’s and the city is that the baseball team will negotiate in good faith towards eventually building a new stadium.
The cost to build the new stadiums is an obstacle. Reports are that the total cost to build these could reach $1.75 billion. Included in that total is an estimated $1 billion to build the new Raiders stadium, $400 to $600 million for the new A’s stadium, at least $150 million to tear down the old site, and $100 million to pay off the debt to the Coliseum. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan is pushing hard to keep both teams and has mentioned that they are negotiating with Colony City Capital to build a Raiders stadium and a surrounding hotel and condo complex.
So why would Davis visit San Antonio? Some feel that Davis is just using this trip as leverage for a new stadium in Oakland. Former Minnesota Viking owner Red McCombs disagrees though as he was a part of this meeting and has said publicly that he didn’t think the 90 minute meeting could have gone any better. McCombs is even willing to purchase a portion of the Raiders to ensure that they have the necessary funds to make such a move. Even still, McCombs feel the chances are slim that the Raiders will move to San Antonio knowing how strong Davis’s ties are to Oakland.
What do current Texas NFL team owners Jerry Jones (Cowboys) and Bob McNair (Texans) feel about the Raiders possibly moving in? Jones said he would make sure it would be difficult for the Raiders to make such a move and that he thought reports of Davis’s meeting was a joke. McNair didn’t oppose the notion of the Raiders moving, but did say that the finance committee would need to approve such a move and McNair is chairman of the finance committee, also mentioning that if San Antonio had a team then half of the fans would be Texan’s fans.
Spurs Sports & Entertainment would also be against the Raiders making this move. SS&E is the holding company headed by Peter Holt that owns the San Antonio Spurs. The only way they would support Davis is if SS&E had controlling interest in the Raiders, something that Mark Davis would most likely refuse.
So where will the Raiders call home? Some still say the most likely destination is LA. There hasn’t been an NFL team in Los Angeles since the Raiders left after the 1994 season. It is hard to imagine a large market like LA not having an NFL franchise much longer. Roger Goodall suggests the Raiders should actually share Levi Stadium with the 49ers in Santa Clara. Davis has ignored this as an option.
The most likely scenario, at least in the short term, is that the Raiders will sign a short term lease at the O.co Coliseum, hoping that progress can be made towards their new stadium in Oakland. Oakland Raiders does sound right afterall.
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