NFL owners met in Illinois last night to discuss the futures of the Oakland Raiders, St. Louis Rams and San Diego Chargers. It is no secret that these three teams have been mired in stadium controversies for years, but Mark Davis and the Raiders attended this meeting for the purpose of presenting their plan to move the team to the Los Angeles suburb of Carson. The fact that this presentation was happening in the first place is a pretty negative sign for the future of the Raiders in Oakland, but there are other signs that the A’s roommates are probably beginning their final season at the Coliseum.
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A plan by San Diego real estate developer Floyd Kephart has been the key to keeping the Raiders in Oakland. The San Jose Mercury News first broke the details of the Kephart plan at the end of June. Some of the details leaked by the Mercury include purchasing 800 acres of land (including 90 acres that are publicly owned) surrounding the current Coliseum site in order to build a “Coliseum City”, as well as purchasing 20 percent of the Raiders. Rachel Swan of the San Francisco Chronicle later elaborated that the Kephart Plan would ask the city of Oakland and Alameda County to contribute anywhere between $100-$140 million for improvements to surrounding infrastructure.
In an article that analyzes the discussions at the Illinois NFL owner’s meeting, Forbes contributor Vincent Frank concluded that NFL executives do not see the Kephart Plan as viable. What makes this more evident is that nobody from Kephart’s organization was even invited to participate in the talks. Frank goes on to explain that the city of San Diego has made progress in negotiating a plan to keep the Chargers in San Diego, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has not been completely convinced that the Rams should move out of St. Louis. It seems that Oakland’s disinclination to bankroll a new stadium plan for the Raiders has both Raiders and NFL officials eager to finalize a plan in Carson.
So what does this mean for our Oakland Athletics? Perhaps it means that Billy Beane’s enthusiasm about the possibility of a new stadium is not completely without merit.
Previously, the biggest obstacle to keeping the A’s in Oakland was the threat of moving the team to San Jose. However, the City of San Jose’s lawsuit against Major League Baseball, which seeks to limit the San Francisco Giants’ territorial control over San Jose, has been rejected by two lower courts. The city did appeal the most recent decision to the US Supreme Court, and the Court will decide whether or not to accept the case during one of its conferences after the beginning of its next term this fall. Those who are hoping to see the San Jose Athletics should not be too optimistic about this case actually being heard by the Supremes, though. The Court accepts less than one percent of all cases presented to it each year.
If San Jose’s case is not heard by the Supreme Court, A’s ownership could still pursue a relocation to San Jose. However, this would require a three-fourths vote from all MLB owners, and it would be difficult to convince 23 owners to strip another team of territorial rights for obvious reasons. KPIX reporter Phil Matier wrote that Lew Wolff is not interested in engaging in a prolonged battle with the Giants in order to win San Jose territorial rights.
So, the current situation is that the Raiders, in all likelihood, will not be calling Oakland home after this season. The A’s currently have a freshly renewed lease at the Coliseum, but the lease allows the team to move to a different park as early as the 2018 season if the team gives a two year notice. Before the A’s renewed their lease at the Coliseum, Wolff penned a letter to an Oakland city administrator that expressed eagerness to build a new, modern ballpark on land currently owned by the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Authority, and that he wanted to do this without any public funding.
Building a new ballpark on the current Coliseum site is not an impossible engineering feat, either. Consider the new Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals. Construction of that stadium began while the Cardinals were still playing in Old Busch Stadium, which was located on the same site. This is not to say it won’t be crowded; the shadow of New Busch loomed over Old Busch when it was nearing completion. However, constructing a new facility that flanks an existing stadium that is currently in use is possible, and it will likely be the avenue that the A’s explore should they decide to build on the current Coliseum site.
If what happened at the NFL owners meeting today is indicative of the Raiders’ future in Oakland, then the A’s may have a more obvious path to a new stadium.
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