For once, Raiders should cooperate with 49ers

By Anthony Carroll  |   Wednesday, January 28, 2009  |  Comments( 9 )

Oakland Raiders
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Santa Clara, Calif., native Steve Lee may want to stay inside for the next couple of days.

Lee, who is the president of the neighborhood association nearest to the likely site of the San Francisco 49ers new stadium, was interviewed by the Mercury News on Monday. The topic: The possibility of the Oakland Raiders joining in on the stadium financing and sharing the new site with the 49ers.

His fearless response:

“With the Raiders, I would voice some opinion that it’ a different clientele than goes to a 49ers game. Is crime going to be spiked by people walking through, and the rowdy behavior of Raiders Nation?”

Yes, Steve, but only if you’re in attendance.

On Monday, 49ers president Jed York said that his franchise and the city are looking into several possibilities for alternative funding options on the new stadium. A crisis spread over the entire economy has hit the California state budget hard, forcing the 49ers to accept a redevelopment subsidy that is less than the $136 million the City Council considered a year ago. And that’s just one of the economic setbacks.

“There are a number of different scenarios that are being explored as part of the term sheet discussions,” York told the Mercury News. “The final result will be explained in a public City Council meeting.”

One of the options is to share the stadium with the Raiders. Some reports have the cost of the new stadium ranging anywhere from $900 million to as high as $1.3 billion. With the economy the way it is and public financing become less and less of a foolproof backing, doubling up the number of games and generating additional revenue doesn’t seem like an all-too-bad alternative at this point.

The timing’s not too bad, either. The Raiders’ lease with the Oakland Coliseum, which opened 43 years ago, ends in 2010. Meanwhile, the 49ers’ aging Candlestick Park opened 49 years ago, and their lease with the city expires after the 2012 season.

To put matters into some perspective, the two stadiums originally cost just $40.5 million combined to build and have been standing for over 90 years. The two construction costs put together are at least $860 million less than it will cost to build a new stadium in Santa Clara.

But that just shows how much can change in 40-plus years. And imagine the wear and tear on a 60,000-plus-seat stadium during that same span of time. Needless to say, neither stadium is pretty.

“The impact of 10 to 12 additional games will be studied in the Environmental Impact Review of the ... stadium project ... currently underway in Santa Clara,” a statement on the 49ers Web site read. “This does not mean the 49ers will share the proposed stadium with another professional team. It simply keeps that option open in the event a workable ‘two-team’ solution presents itself.”

While it’s always difficult to pair rivals -- and, in this case, very bitter rivals -- there may not be a more practical time for the Niners and Raiders top brass to join up and work with the NFL to build a joint stadium.

One council member, Will Kennedy, admitted that “the most difficult part of this process [is] to show that the stadium would produce enough revenue to justify the city’s contribution” and that a second team may help to shore up that dilemma.

Granted, it may not be an ideal situation for fans of either team.

For the Raiders, though, it could mean a brand new stadium and, perhaps most importantly, keeping the silver and black in the Bay Area.

So probably for the first and last time, I’ll say this:

The Oakland Raiders should work together with the San Francisco 49ers.
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About Anthony Carroll

Anthony Carroll began writing for RealFootball365.com on Sept. 26, 2005, making him one of the longest tenured contributors to the “365” team. As a senior writer, Anthony has taken on the task of delivering original content to the silver and black faithful year round, despite having to deal...
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