Oakland bows out of new XFL
OAKLAND >> The XFL reboot got the boot in Oakland.
Led by professional wrestling mogul Vince McMahon, the reincarnation of a football league that died after a single season in 2001 eyed the Coliseum as a possible home turf for one of eight teams.
But like other proposals at the city- and countyowned stadium, it came down to timing and sharing space at the nation’s only professional baseball and football facility.
Scott McKibben, executive director of the stadium authority, this week said the XFL’s schedule conflicts with getting the Coliseum ready for the Oakland Athletics Opening Day in 2020.
“There just isn’t any way we are going to be an impediment or obstacle to the A’s,” said McKibben, head of the authority that manages the Coliseum and Oracle Arena.
A UC Berkeley athletics spokesman said the university also refused the XFL’s proposal to play at Memorial Stadium.
In January, McMahon, chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment, announced the rebirth of his rebel league, 17 years after it burst on the scene with its gimmicks and lasted all of 15 months. McMahon promised a faster-paced game with “fewer stoppages, simpler rules, affordable prices.” The 10-week season in 2020 begins in February and ends in April before the NFL Draft.
With the Raiders leaving for Las Vegas as early as 2020, XFL officials expressed interest in Oakland as a target market for the eight-team league. In 2001, the San Francisco Demons led the XFL in home attendance, averaging about 35,000 fans at the newly opened AT&T Park.
McKibben said the schedule, however, would interfere with getting the Coliseum grass ready for baseball at the Coliseum; prepping the outfield grass begins in the winter. The authority director told the joint powers authority board he did not respond to the XFL’s request for proposals. The league expects to announce a list of cities later this month.
There’s also the possibility the Raiders may stay through 2021. The joint powers authority and the team are negotiating a oneyear lease extension for the 2019-20 season, with the option to play in Oakland in 2020-21 if the Las Vegas stadium is not ready. McKibben said details of the lease should be completed over the next 60 days.
With limited options elsewhere in the Bay Area, it is expected the Raiders rent will increase again. In 2016, it went up from $925,000 — among the lowest rents in the NFL — to $3.5 million.