Raiders owner Davis vents frustration with Athletics
Raiders owner Mark Davis, angered by drastic changes to some Coliseum seating areas by the A’s, took a few shots at the team’s front office as well as Oakland’s city leadership in a wide-ranging interview with The Athletic.
While maintaining he still has great feelings for the A’s, Davis unleashed a string of obscenities while alluding to how their front office’s seating alterations negatively impacted the Raiders.
“Unfortunately, there’s a problem there,” Davis said of the A’s to Vincent Bonsignore of The Athletic. “As far as the players and everybody, we love the A’s. We seriously do. But the front office has been real (expletives). They’ve been really (expletive) around with us up there, taking advantage of the situation. Which, it is their right to do it, but it makes it hard. Again though, we love the players, we love the A’s.”
Davis also used obscenities to describe what it’s like dealing with city leaders over stadium issues.
“They’re (expletive) totally dysfunctional,” he said. “It’s that (expletive) bad over there.”
The Raiders owner later apologized somewhat for what he said about the A’s, telling ESPN, “I am not sorry for the things I said, but I am sorry for the way I said them.”
This season is set to be the Raiders’ last in Oakland — as their $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium is on target to be ready for their move to Las Vegas in 2020 — and Davis is upset he’s had to figure out ways to accommodate about 2,500 Raiders fans whose seats were negatively impacted when the A’s made the Coliseum more spacious and inviting for their fans.
However, since the A’s have five years remaining on their 10-year Coliseum lease and the Raiders are armed with a basic one-year, take-it-or-leaveit rental agreement while having one foot out the door toward Vegas, Davis has little say over stadium matters here.
ESPN reported the Raiders had to move their 2,500 season-ticket holders to equal or better Coliseum seats and, in many cases, those seats were taken away from team employees.
In the interview, Davis also said
while he’s excited about the prospect of playing in Vegas, he is also sympathetic with Oakland fans.
“I’ve also been aware of Oakland and not wanting to rub it in their face or anything else,” he said. “So we’re not able to celebrate everything, entirely, out of respect.” — Jon Becker
Golf
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Motor sports
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Tennis
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