Report: Raiders most likely to stay in Bay Area in 2019 with one location a ‘layup’ for the NFL

Despite all the noise out there about supposed discussions with potential 2019 locations from San Diego to Tucson to London, the most recent report suggests if the Raiders don’t play in Oakland in 2019, they may not be going far.

The most likely locations according to sources close to Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports are two other locations in the Bay Area — Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara and AT&T/Oracle Park in San Francisco.

Both locations would keep the Raiders close enough to Oakland to make it much easier logistically speaking for the team as well as the Oakland fans to attend the games.

While Santa Clara would be more of a trek for fans than a trip across the Bay Bridge to AT&T Park, sharing the stadium with another NFL club would be the easiest for the league. That could trump Mark Davis’s feelings on the matter should he be set against playing in Oakland.

“The Raiders don’t want to play at Levi’s, but from the league’s standpoint this really would be a layup,” a source with knowledge of the situation told CBS Sports. “All of the infrastructure is already there. It would be the cheapest and the easiest.”

The alternative would be either Mark Davis swallowing his pride and playing 2019 in Oakland or the league converting a baseball park for football. AT&T Park has made that transition for college football games, but it is a rather awkward transition, including both teams having to line up on the same side of the field.

La Canfora went on to say that playing at Qualcomm in San Diego is not completely out of the question, but is more “remote” at this point. And London is seen as “untenable.”