Despite their upcoming move to Las Vegas, the Oakland Raiders are receiving plenty of support in their current home, prompting some to wonder how long the team will remain in Oakland.
Though the team’s relocation proposal was approved in March, the Raiders are still years away from moving into their new Las Vegas stadium, which is not expected to open until 2020. In the meantime, the team remains in Oakland, where it has sold out its season ticket inventory for the 2017 season.
Under the terms of their agreement with the Oakland Coliseum Authority, the Raiders can play the next two seasons at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Beyond that, their status for 2019 is still in question.
With fans still supporting the Raiders through ticket sales, some are wondering if the team may stick around for 2019. That notion draws a mixed reaction among authority board members, something the San Francisco Chronicle found in a recent story:
Members of the authority, run by Oakland and Alameda County, have been lukewarm to the idea of the Raiders playing in the Coliseum in 2019. They say the stadium loses $1 million a year on Raider games, but “keeping the team here means jobs” for Coliseum workers, board member Chris Dobbins noted.
County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, another board member, said the lease would have to be changed before he would consider an extension. “It can’t cost the taxpayers a single cent,” he said.
Board member Larry Reid, an Oakland City Council member who has called on fans to boycott the Raiders, said, “No, no and no,” when asked about extending the team’s lease.
“But then I’m only one vote,” Reid said.
Currently, the Raiders are still ironing out details relating to their new Las Vegas stadium. A recently-released timeline calls for construction of that facility to begin in January 2018, and be completed in June 2020.
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