Download the CBS Sports App today and get the latest offseason NFL news and alerts, plus NFL draft analysis and a look ahead to the 2017 season!
The expectation around the NFL is still that the Oakland Raiders will soon call Las Vegas home, but that did not stop Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf from making a last-ditch attempt to keep the team. Schaaf sent a letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell this week in which she informed him that Fortress Investment Group has pledged a $600 million investment to build a stadium in Oakland.
Mayor Libby Schaaf just sent letter to Goodell in which Fortress Investment Group offering $600 mil to build stadium in Oakland. #Raiders
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) March 24, 2017
Schaaf also took issue with the NFL’s assertion that the Oakland Athletics remaining tenants of Oakland Alameda Coliseum could present an issue with building a new stadium near that site.
In her letter Friday, Schaaf addressed the NFL’s “request that the A’s rights to Coliseum be truncated” and said that was “problematic.”
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) March 24, 2017
OAK basically charges that issue of A's is a red herring, that there is plenty of room on site 4 A's to stay and build a new football venue
— daniel kaplan (@dkaplanSBJ) March 24, 2017
The text of the letter can be seen below:
The Eleventh Hour #RaiderNation pic.twitter.com/jR4MinrOSP
— AFL GODFATHER (@NFLMAVERICK) March 24, 2017
Within that letter, Schaaf states that the city of Oakland and Alameda County “have offered to convey up to 130 acres of land, with a market value of $150 million, for stadium and mixed-use development, with full consideration to be paid on the back end through profit participation with the Lott Group and Fortress. Fortress would then use the up-front value of the land to make a $150 million investment in stadium development. The city and county have full site control over the land.”
The letter also calls for a $200 million investment from the city and a $50 million transit grant to “improve the connection of the site to the nearby Coliseum BART station. The letter states that an Environmental Impact Report is already done, and that the total cost of building an open-air stadium on the site would cost somewhere between $600-700 million less than doing so in Las Vegas.
The owners still have to vote to approve a potential move to Las Vegas for the Raiders. The NFL has repeatedly insisted that Oakland does not have a viable plan to keep the team, but it’s not yet known how this new proposal would affect a vote.
