Can anybody save the Raiders from leaving Oakland?
Ronnie Lott is fighting to the finish, and if you know this man, you realize that it has so much to do with principle.
More than anyone, the Hall of Fame safety and Bay Area icon, has been the public face of the long-shot efforts to save the Raiders for Oakland.
It’s too bad that won’t be enough to seal a deal.
When NFL owners gather in Phoenix for their annual meetings starting Monday, it’s expected that they will approve another franchise move, with Mark Davis following in the tradition of his late, maverick father as he prepares to take his team to Las Vegas.
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While Al Davis may be somewhere smirking, Lott, who played two seasons with the Raiders in Los Angeles following his heyday with the San Francisco 49ers, is grumbling.
“I’ve been going to Oakland sporting events ever since I was a rookie,” Lott, who joined the 49ers in 1981, told USA TODAY Sports. He’s part of an investment group, Fortress Management Group, that has attempted to join forces with the Raiders and city and county officials to keep the team.
"I’ve seen a lot of people work their tail off,” Lott said. “The reason I got involved was to show people that Oakland is healthy. It’s a better TV market than Las Vegas. A better business market.”
But soon, maybe by 2018, Oakland will be a market without the Raiders. The tradition reflected over the years by the likes of Madden, Marcus, the Snake and that classic NFL Films number, The Autumn Wind is a Raider, converges with another time-honored stamp of the franchise – the pursuit of a lucrative deal.
Never mind the last-ditch offer that Oakland mayor Libby Schaff unveiled on Friday, which included the most public details yet for a proposed, $1.3 billion, 55,000-seat stadium.
I’m guessing it’s too little, too late.
While Fortress would commit $600 million to that plan, with another $200 million from Oakland and $500 million from the Raiders, you have to wonder: Where was this proposal five years ago? Last year?
It wasn’t until 2016 when city and county officials – who had long refused to commit public dollars to a Raiders stadium plan – finally seemed willing to pursue such a deal. This, after the Raiders engaged with the Chargers and Rams in the hunt for L.A., and while the Las Vegas option quickly developed with the jolt of $750 million from a Nevada hotel tax.
Davis has maintained in recent months that after giving his word to officials in Nevada that he’d move the team if the public money materialized, he wouldn’t weigh options elsewhere – including Oakland.
For some time now, it seemed that Oakland’s only shot hinged on the Vegas deal collapsing.
Perhaps the timing of Oakland’s fresh offer has materialized conveniently to save political face.
See, voters, we tried to keep the Raiders.
That’s not to say that Lott and his group were not swinging with full force. A few weeks ago, when Sheldon Adelson pulled out of his $650 million commitment to the Vegas plan – since replaced by Bank of America – Lott said he wanted the NFL to realize, “We’ve got some titans, too” in the Bay Area.
Oakland’s efforts have had the best possible spokesperson in Lott, who with Joe Montana represented the heartbeat for four Super Bowl championship teams for the 49ers. He wears the type of passion on his sleeve in this scenario that is not unlike his calling card as a determined player.
“This is not just about the Raiders,” Lott said.
He laments that “it could be 3,000 to 10,000 jobs lost,” in addition to lost tax revenues and other community benefits.
“This is the value that the NFL brings,” he added.
He’s a realist, too. The Las Vegas deal appears to be a sweet one for Davis. For the Raiders, who will kick in $550 million for the 65,000-seat, $1.9 billion domed stadium near the famed Strip, the NFL is poised to require a relocation fee that could be half of what the Rams and Chargers paid to move into Los Angeles. According to MMQB.com, the Raiders’ fee to move will range from $325 million to $375 million.
“The owners are trying to make the best opportunity for Mark Davis,” Lott said.
And that means no opportunity for Oakland.
“I feel bad, because this is just starting,” Lott said. The Raiders are on a one-year lease at the Oakland Coliseum, with an option to extend through 2018. The Las Vegas stadium is projected to open in 2020.
“It’s going to get ugly. In San Diego, they were upset to lose the Chargers. People in Oakland will be mad.”