It seems Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis is considering all kinds of options when it comes to the potential, and probably likely, relocation of his NFL franchise.
While Davis is currently involved both in talks with the city of Oakland on a potential new downtown stadium - talks which, per the latest reports, have not made much in the way of headway recently - and the development of a joint stadium initiative, along with San Diego Chargers owner Dean Spanos, in Carson, California, it seems another potential outcome remains in play.
According to Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports, it is "not out of the question" for Davis to relocate the Raiders to San Antonio on a short-term basis - perhaps something like two seasons - before ultimately landing the franchise in Los Angeles for the long haul after their new Carson stadium is completed.
San Antonio, of course, is a name that hasn't popped up of late, but was at one point considered amongst the likelier landing spots for the Raiders if they were to be relocated. Davis even met with San Antonio officials in Nov. 2014 to assess the viability of relocating the team there.
"We're going to present San Antonio's strengths and assets in the most persuasive way possible," San Antonio Mary Henry Cisneros said at the time, via ESPN. "We have a very, very good opportunity to set it forth in a way the Raiders can digest."
San Antonio officials were singing a very different tune by Feb. 2015, when they decried the Raiders apparent use of San Antonio as leverage against Oakland and, potentially, Los Angeles - something which the city had already dealt with before with the New Orleans Saints and now Miami Marlins.
"I may be a little bit too cynical, but they are not truthful with you. They lie." Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said, via Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News. "They lie."
"As you know after my escapades with the Saints and the Marlins, I am very distrustful of all of them. My distrust of the NFL and of Major League Baseball is really high. That's why I have always thought no mas - unless both the team and the league are at the table."
That being said, the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce indicated that landing the Raiders remained their ultimate objective.
"The concerted efforts of San Antonio's public and private sectors remain focused on a long-term vision to bring the Raiders to the Alamo City," the Chamber said in a statement, via Darin Gantt of ProFootballTalk.
In the end, only Davis and, presumably, NFL officials know what direction the Raiders are leaning. From the sounds of things though, at least we know no option is off-limits.
