The city of Oakland may be celebrating their first NBA Championship in 40 years thanks to the Golden State Warriors, but all is certainly not well in Oak Town.
The Warriors have announced plans for a new "sports and entertainment center" in San Francisco, the Athletics have been repeatedly linked to San Jose and the Raiders and owner Mark Davis are actively pursuing a stadium initiative in Carson. In short, the only thing likely to stay the same for fans in Oakland is the seemingly never-ending change and turnover for their favorite franchises.
The Coliseum City plan, which is suggesting the possibility of three separate sports venues on the same expanded Coliseum site, is expected to produce a financing plan in the near future.
The Athletics though, are not interested in that, and it could mean an increased likelihood of the Raiders relocating to Southern California sometime in the next couple of years.
"We have thoroughly investigated things," Athletics owner Lew Wolff told the San Jose Mercury News. "And there is no good way to put two brand-new venues at the Coliseum site. If the Raiders are going to be there, then I don't know what will happen. We'll have to sit down with (baseball commissioner) Rob (Manfred) and see what to do."
While San Jose has been suggested as a potential future home for the A's, Wolff indicated the organization has little-to-no interest in that.
"We have not been looking at venues in other places in the Bay Area," he said. "And we are not planning to look."
With the A's digging in their heels on the Coliseum site as a single-team venue, it leaves little recourse for the Raiders and Davis.
HNGN passed along a report in May that Davis' joint stadium venture in Carson had taken "significant steps" of late at the same time as Oakland's plan for a new downtown stadium had "moved backwards."
To this point, Davis and the city have used a series of one-year extensions to essentially put off forcing the issue to a head, but it's not a sustainable means of maintaining the relationship. The Coliseum is certainly outdated by modern standards and Davis has been adamant that while he doesn't want to move the team, he does want a new venue.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf has, on the other hand, been adamant that much great issues face the city than the Raiders current predicament and thus it's unlikely the franchise will see the type of taxpayer dollars necessary to remain in place.
What the ultimate outcome of all of this economic and geographic posturing and probing will be is anyone's guess at this point, but it seems beyond unlikely that fans in Oakland will ultimately come out on the winning end.
