Oakland to Raiders: California Is The Place You Oughta Be!

BAY AREA, CA – Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said Thursday that Oakland remains the better option for the Oakland Raiders despite the team moving forward with plans to relocate to Las Vegas.

The Raiders officially filed paperwork with the National Football League Thursday seeking permission to move to Las Vegas, which would require approval by three-fourths of the league's 32 team owners.

"The application will be reviewed in the coming weeks by league staff and the stadium and finance committees," NFL officials said in a statement.

Schaaf said the move came as no surprise as she inherited years of frustration from the Raiders when she took office and only recently has Oakland put a viable plan on the table with a specified funding source.

"We know that Oakland offers something Las Vegas never will and that is legacy and loyalty," she said. "Like me, the Raiders were born and raised in Oakland."

The Raiders have been seeking a new stadium for years. For the last several months, the team has been talking to officials in Nevada about potentially building a stadium in Las Vegas, eventually getting a commitment of up to $750 million in new hotel tax revenue for the project from the Nevada state Legislature.

Schaaf has vowed not to use public money for the construction of a new stadium, though did propose a deal that would provide $200 million in unspecified infrastructure costs.

That proposal, which would be largely bankrolled by an investment group headed by former San Francisco 49ers star Ronnie Lott, was approved by the Oakland City Council and the Alameda County Board of Supervisors last month, but so far the team has shown little interest in it.

The Lott group released a statement Thursday saying that the application to relocate was an expected move by the Raiders in order to keep their options open, but the Lott group said they remain "diligently focused" on keeping the Raiders in Oakland.

They said they will be providing more data about their proposal to the team and the NFL.

"The more we work on this project, the more convinced we are that Oakland is the right place for the Raiders," officials with the Lott group said in the statement.

"In one of the top 5 markets in the country, with a new, world-class stadium and an updated transit hub, we believe the Oakland Coliseum site will be one of the very best mixed use developments/sports complex in the country -- providing superior value and fan experience to the Raiders and the NFL," they said.

Schaaf said she expects the city to be able to give a presentation to the NFL before the owners take a vote on the plan to move the team to Las Vegas. Oakland previously had an opportunity to make a case before the
Raiders' bid to move to the Los Angeles area and share a stadium with the San Diego Chargers.

Instead, the Chargers will be sharing a stadium with the Los Angeles Rams, who moved last year from St. Louis, Missouri.

If the move to Las Vegas is approved, the Raiders' departure could mark an exodus for Oakland sports teams, with the Golden State Warriors breaking ground earlier this week on a new arena in San Francisco. The
Oakland A's have also been seeking for years to relocate, but bids to move to Fremont and San Jose have been fruitless.

The group Save Oakland Sports started a petition on Change.org urging the NFL to reject the Raiders' application and to keep the team in Oakland, arguing that the team is well-supported financially, selling out
every game in the team's resurgent 2016 season.

The petition had nearly 1,539 signatures as of this morning. It is available at https://www.change.org/p/nfl-tell-nfl-front-office-nfl-team-owners-not-to-approve-relocation-of-the-oakland-raiders.

Representatives of the Raiders did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

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--Bay City News/File image courtesy of Mayor Libby Schaaf on Facebook