Raider Fans Mount Last-Ditch Effort to Keep Team in Oakland

The owners of the 32 teams in the NFL will gather March 26-29 for their annual meeting in Phoenix, and one item likely to be on their agenda is the relocation application filed earlier this year by the owners of the Oakland Raiders, who have an offer on the table to move to a new stadium in Las Vegas for the 2020 football season.

Raider Nation is a big tent, and there are many fans who like the idea of combining their football with the other attractions of Sin City. But especially here in the Bay Area, there's been vocal, and visible, opposition since the Vegas plan became public -- and even before, during a failed attempt to take the team to Los Angeles for the second time. A new effort is underway to focus that opposition prior to any NFL vote.

That's why on a sunny Sunday in March, about 100 fans gathered in an Oakland hotel just down the street from the stadium where they've spent so many autumn Sundays. Instead of beers and barbecue at a tailgate, they picked up sodas and slices of pizza to accompany PowerPoint presentations and discussions of the finer points of NFL governance.

The gathering was organized by Ray Bobbitt, a local business owner who's calling his group the Oakland Coliseum Economic Impact and Legal Action Committee (OCEILAC). About that: "People ask me, Ray, why would you have a name that long? And it's because then I don't have to explain what we're going to do if they try and move."

The "economic impact" part of the equation, says Bobbitt, includes construction jobs if a new stadium rises on the site of the existing Coliseum -- but in the longer term, the jobs it provides for neighborhood residents.

"Entry-level positions, something they can do to develop a skill set, whether it be a young person or one of our grandparents that need to make ends meet," Bobbitt says. "You go to the Coliseum now, and you'll see them at parking, at security, selling food. People take that for granted, and they don't understand the impact of that."

Community advocate John Jones III told the group he, too, wants the economic stimulus of a new stadium for the neighborhoods immediately around the Coliseum. But he said it's also important for the NFL to hear that they're not being asked to make a business decision on charitable grounds. Oakland and the East Bay are stronger economically than Las Vegas, he said, and the NFL can't afford to lose this market.

"We know Uber's going to open at the old Sears building. Google is looking at the Fruitvale district," Jones says. "The point is, this is not Oakland of 1995 when the Raiders came back. It's a very new, prosperous Oakland, and it does present the most viable opportunity for the Raiders."

NFL legend Ronnie Lott dropped by to greet the attendees -- he's leading the investment group that wants to build a new Raiders stadium here. Also making the case for Oakland: radio host Chuy Gomez, DJ TJ Martinez, and rapper and activist Stanley Cox, better known as Mistah F.A.B.

"We're talking about our hometown here -- the kids, the influence, the jobs, the economy, the schools," Cox said. "And for me, the most important part of this: football, sports, bring people under one roof that have never been in the same room together. Some of us would have never crossed paths if it wasn't for our aligned love and passion for sports."

Leo Bazile served on the Oakland City Council during the Raiders' 12 years in Los Angeles. He told fans that in those days team owners could play Northern and Southern California against each other, and state leaders stayed out of it.

"How many of you realize that the fight you're in now is between California and Nevada?" Bazile said. "Now every elected official in California should support this team staying here. Organize your communication, start with Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, and say where are you on the Raiders deal? Because the more the drums are beating, the more the politicians are going to start looking for angles. Otherwise, out of sight?" Bazile said, and the crowd responded, "Out of mind."

The conference also featured a mock "relocation vote," with members of fan groups for the 31 other teams in the NFL as well as the Raiders weighing in by text, email and in person. Not surprisingly, this vote was unanimously against the move.  Nick Wilson, representing the Chicago Bears expressed a common concern: "If the NFL can do this to Oakland, it raises the question of whose team is safe? What's the point of being a fan?"

That sentiment was echoed by another guest, Patrick Healy, who has founded a national group called the FanFairness Initiative.

"Don't kid yourself. This is about money," Healy said. "They're using your love and your passion for your team for their financial benefit. And the only way that I know to fix that is for fans across the country to organize themselves online to start a national movement."

Healy wants lovers of all four major sports to demand financial transparency from leagues and put an end to taxpayer funding of stadiums.

As the days tick down before the NFL meets, Ray Bobbitt's action items include setting up a meeting with Bank of America officials -- they're reportedly in line to finance the Vegas deal. He also wants state legislators to hold hearings on the relocation issue. And he plans a very visible show of support -- a human chain of fans linking arms to embrace the Oakland Coliseum.   OCEILAS is signing people up through another fan group, Save Oakland Sports.

Bobbitt's best-case scenario is that at least nine NFL team owners vote against relocation. It's also possible the league will postpone the vote until later this year, since Las Vegas doesn't have a draft lease agreement with the Raiders or a definite site for a stadium. He and other members of the group are staying positive and working their connections within the NFL as well as outside it. But if the worst case happens -- well, Bobbitt says, Raider fans aren't particularly renowned for their graceful acceptance of defeat.

"It's in our blood that when people walk up to us, and they try to take something out of our hands, at a minimum they know that they've been in a fight," Bobbitt says. "The last thing that's going to happen is that we'll allow the Raiders to pack up in the middle of the night, and all of us will go over to the Coliseum and burn a few jerseys and that's it. That's not going to happen.

"We're going to take every legal action that we can to block relocation. This isn't going to be like [the last two cities to lose their teams] San Diego and St. Louis -- with all due respect to those fans. We're going to mobilize like they've never seen before."