Oakland Mayor Proposes "Coliseum City", Includes a Stadium for Raiders

Finally some decent news about a possible stadium for the Raiders in Oakland! I came across an article on City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan's website speaking of a proposal made by Mayor Quan for something dubbed Coliseum City. This is great news in my opinion just for the fact that Oakland is not just throwing in the white flag and letting us leave. They are at least trying to keep us where we belong, in Oakland CA.

It is an interesting plan, I suggest checking out the link above for a more detailed explanation of what they are trying to accomplish. The gist of it is that they are trying to get not one, not two, but three new stadiums built all next to each other on land the city already owns. That is correct, THREE new stadiums! They are trying to get a new stadium for us, the A's and the Warriors, and without them the teams might decide to relocate. The plan also includes a convention center, hotel and retail strip mall in an attempt to rival the L.A. Live area.

The Governor of California is not on board yet so it has a lot of work still to do. However, the fact that it is on land the City of Oakland already owns makes it possible for this to possibly proceed whether or not the Governor signs on. They apparently have already been contacted by six different private individuals interested in investing in the operation which also is a very encouraging sign.

Something else that caught my eye in the above linked article by Robert Gammon and Nate Seltenrich is the mention of the 49ers attempting to convince the Raiders to share their proposed new stadium. They don't go into anymore details than simply mentioning the possibility. I would much prefer to stay in Oakland, but if that is not going to happen then sharing a stadium with the Niners is the next best thing in my opinion.

They would remain in the Bay Area and still be called the Oakland Raiders which just sounds right. I know a lot of people are against this idea but I like it a lot better than moving to Los Angeles. The idea of sharing the maintenance costs of the stadium makes a lot of financial sense to me as well. Even if we move to LA we would probably be sharing a stadium with a different team anyway, so it might as well be the Niners in Northern California where they belong. Hopefully Coliseum City grows some legs and starts running, then we wont need to make that choice anyway!