Oakland bows out of new XFL football league

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 county-owned 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 last Friday 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 one-year lease extension for the 2019-20 season, with the option to play in Oakland in 202021 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.

Sherman’s hamstring sidelines him in practice

SANTA CLARA -- Once Sherman's right hamstring flared up midway through Friday's practice, he stayed out of further team drills and later visited trainers for evaluation.

"They told me his hammy got tight on him so they took him out and we'll see afterward," coach Kyle Shanahan said.

Sherman reached for his right hamstring after landing hard near the sideline while covering Pierre Garcon, who caught a 40-yard pass from Jimmy Garoppolo. Sherman then took a knee on the sideline, hid whatever discomfort he felt and did not appear distraught, as was the case when an hour later as he left the locker room.

Sherman has progressed well throughout the first week of camp, his first significant tests of a repaired right Achilles from last November, an injury that ended his sevenyear tenure with the Seattle Seahawks. He's not only offered sage advice to a young secondary but he's intensified the competition in drills.