Oakland Mayor Announces Last-Minute Effort To Keep Raiders Before Vegas Vote
OAKLAND (CBS SF) – While NFL owners are expected to vote next week on moving the Raiders to Las Vegas, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf sent a letter to Commissioner Roger Goodell with a last-minute proposal for a new stadium in Oakland.
In the letter, Schaaf told the commissioner that 55 acres south of the Oakland Coliseum is "immediately available" for stadium construction and the Fortress Investment Group would commit $600 million towards the project.
Fortress has been working for the past several months with NFL hall-of-famer Ronnie Lott and local officials to keep the Raiders from leaving Oakland for a second time.
• Read Schaaf's Letter To NFL Commissioner (.pdf) | Stadium Proposal (.pdf)
The mayor's office also released renderings of possible locations on the Coliseum site for a new football stadium, along with a possible site for a baseball-only stadium for the Oakland A's and a mixed-use development.
"We're not giving up in the fourth quarter," Schaaf said in a statement. "We've been successful in doing the environmental clearance, aligning the City and the County which jointly own the land, engaging the league and bringing partners to the table in the Lott Group and Fortress who have the financial backing, compassion for this community and intimate knowledge of the game -- on and off the field -- to get a deal done. All that's missing is the Raiders."
The issue of relocating the Raiders is on the agenda at the NFL owners meetings, which take place next week in Phoenix. Relocation requires at least 24 of the 32 owners to approve the plan.
Former Raiders CEO Amy Trask, along with sources within the league who have knowledge of the situation, believe that the owners will approve the Raiders to Las Vegas proposal.
