Oakland left in lurch as Vegas deal plays out
The Raiders will announce and celebrate the breakup, once it is approved, but they won’t pack up and go away, not yet, and maybe that will only make it worse and worse for Oakland.
Immediate closure for the divorce? Not happening for East Bay fans, because when and if the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas is approved by NFL owners early next week, the Raiders still plan to play — and have a lease for — several more seasons at the Coliseum.
A new start? Not for two or three years, while the $1.9 billion Las Vegas stadium is constructed (and because UNLV’s
Sam Boyd Stadium is not close to NFL standards and probably could not be brought to that level, even with renovations).
Out of sight, out of mind? Oops, not so much, because the Raiders will still practice in Alameda, hold training camp in Napa, play home games at the Coliseum, and quite likely will continue to be good enough to avoid a complete jilting by Bay Area-based fans.
Or if the Raiders’ fortunes on the field take a bad turn, the Coliseum could turn into the bleak, barren symbol of this unprecedented purgatory period.
So it will be awkward — the Raiders will be the spouse that has announced a new marriage, but won’t leave the old house.
It will be confusing — the city of Oakland has no choice but to let the Raiders stay for a little while longer, probably will applaud all on-field successes, but should be look- ing for new partners itself.
It could be a mess. It might take some unexpected twists. It could be a little ugly.
Even if the Raiders deliver their greatest football season in decades — if Derek Carr and Khalil Mack lead them to a victory in Super Bowl 52, which is not out of the question — Bay Area fans will know that the Raiders did it with one foot, and almost their entire body, out the door.
NFL relations are usually not passive-aggressive, but how else can you describe how the Raiders and Oakland will treat each other if, and once, the Las Vegas move is approved?
Divorced, but not separated.
Yes, because the Raiders have already moved twice before, and because they are a huge international brand, this franchise might be the only one that could even come close to pulling off two or three lame-duck seasons (depending on how long it takes to complete the Las Vegas stadium).
Their Oakland fans flew down to Los Angeles when the Raiders made that move, and their L.A. fans have been flying up to the Oakland games for years.
This will not change with any announced move to Las Vegas — in fact, it might only be heightened; the Raiders have the largest segment of transitory fans in the NFL and maybe in sports.
But even if everything goes relatively smoothly while the Las Vegas stadium is built, this limbo time in the Bay Area will pull at fans, pull at the players, pull at everything we know about the Raiders.
They will play in Oak- land, will be bound for Las Vegas and will be cheered by those the franchise has chosen to abandon.
No wonder at least one or two people in management have dangled the idea of luring Oakland hero Marshawn Lynch out of retirement this season.
And no wonder there are already rumblings that, after the Raiders play in the Coliseum in 2017, they might consider other options in 2018 and, if necessary, 2019, with Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara looking like the easiest alternative.
The NFL wants out of the Coliseum as soon as possible. So do the Raiders. It so happens that Levi’s was built to accommodate two NFL teams and the Raiders theoretically could make more short-term money playing in lush Levi’s — with the suites and concessions — than they could at the Coliseum.
So the Raiders could spend their final Bay Area season or two in Santa Clara, in the 49ers’ stadium, inching away from their East Bay fans but not all the way gone. Yet.
It’s impossible to predict how fans would respond — will Levi’s fill up with Raiders fans? Will they spurn the temporary home? — and how this all will translate to the action on the field for these years, other than say it will be weird and unprecedented.
Also, the Oakland and Alameda County officials have their own angles to play here.
If and when the Raiders depart, the booming East Bay will turn into one of the most coveted open areas on the NFL landscape.
Some NFL sources have noted for weeks that Oakland could logically become the new L.A. — used by smaller-market franchises to leverage better local deals (say in Buffalo or Jacksonville), or simply as a potential landing spot for the Bills or Jaguars.
And Albert Breer of the MMQB also raised the possibility of a tech billionaire — such as Larry Ellison or Mark Zuckerberg — taking over as a prospective owner, opening his wallet to fund a state-of-the-art stadium and a team in the East Bay in a way that Mark Davis never could with the Raiders.
All of this could and probably should be discussed even while the Raiders are playing in the Coliseum, with their eyes on Las Vegas, and the fans caught in between.
All of this will get messy and tense and weird, over two or three long years, and the approval vote next week will just be the start of it.