The Oakland Raiders have a lease at the Oakland Coliseum through 2018, but the NFL club may look at extending it through 2020 to give themselves some cushion room during the construction of a new Las Vegas stadium.
The new Las Vegas stadium will certainly be an ambitious undertaking, but a 2019 opening may be a tad ambitious given that there are some huge issues to be tackled — like parking and a potential UNLV agreement — before serious construction can start. Given the roadblocks, it sounds like the Raiders want to take the safe path and commit to one more year, and probably two, past the current lease. From SFGate:
Scott McKibben, executive director of the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Authority — who’s had informal conversations in recent weeks with Raiders President Marc Badain — said the team may need to stay in Oakland longer than anticipated.
“For sure we are talking about a one-year extension and there’s a real likelihood we could be talking about two years,” McKibben said….
McKibben said that while there’s no pressure to hammer out a lease extension, “it’d be to everyone’s benefit” to get it done in the coming months as soon as the Raiders have a better sense of their timetable for construction in Las Vegas.
Of course, there are some in Oakland that would rather see the Raiders go than negotiate an extension. We’ll see if they carry the day.
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