By DANIEL GLUSKOTER While the official announcement from the NFL on Tuesday that the St. Louis Rams were moving back to Los Angeles was good news for the San Francisco 49ers, it only served to add more uncertainty to the status of the Oakland Raiders.
Where the 49ers now have an additional division opponent down the coast a short plane flight away, the murky future of the Raiders is more in question than ever before as the team ended up with the shortest straw in the three-team relocation derby for the riches of Los Angeles. Without a team for 21 years since losing both the Raiders and the Rams following the 1994 season, the league approved the Rams’ return from St. Louis by a 30-2 vote on Tuesday.
The vote makes life better for the 49ers, as it provides an opportunity to renew a once great rivalry that lasted, ironically, 49 years, from 1946 until the Rams’ departure. It also puts all of the teams division opponents in the same time zone, making for an easier travel schedule over the course of the season with the removal of the annual trips to St. Louis, a nearly four-hour flight and two time zones away.
The Raiders on the other hand, while a much improved product on the field, are still searching for a viable long-term stadium plan, having even placed behind the San Diego Chargers as the League’s final choice to accompany the Rams to Los Angeles as a second tenant in the Inglewood stadium now scheduled to open in time for the 2019 season. The Chargers were given a one year option of joining the Rams in Los Angeles in a shared stadium. If they decline, the Raiders would then have a one year option of their own thru January 2018 of moving down south to join the Rams.
What happens next is anyone’s guess. The Chargers are now on the clock and control their own destiny, very much unlike the Raiders. The League has committed to contributing $100 million a piece in assistance towards stadium solutions to both the Raiders and Chargers if either decides to build a new stadium and remain in their current location. Unfortunately, that won’t go too far considering the estimated $2.66 billion cost of the new stadium in Inglewood.
The reported $1.3 billion price tag for Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara provides a better perspective on the potential cost of a new stadium in Oakland, but it still goes to highlight the point that $100 million just won’t buy what it used to and would still conservatively leave the team in need of another $1 billion to pull it off. Other options include the possibility of the Raiders also relocating to Santa Clara, but it’s still unknown whether 49er ownership would be willing to share Levi’s Stadium. Additionally, the Raiders could consider moves to St. Louis to replace the Rams, or possibly to San Diego to fill the void if the Chargers leave and a plan for a new stadium can finally be created there.
The Raiders do have a significant fan base in San Diego, but the Silver and Black replacing the powder blue and gold of the Chargers in that locality would be rather difficult to digest. Let’s hope the city of Oakland can appreciate how closely it appears to have dodged a bullet. The best team in the NBA has one foot out the door on its way across the bay; hopefully a meeting of the minds can occur before the Raiders follow.
Or, in the immortal words of Joe Strummer and The Clash, “London Calling”?
Good analysis and consolidation of the facts. Hopefully they can figure it out.
Would be tragic for the east bay if we lose another team.