It’s no secret that the Oakland Raiders aren’t happy with playing at O.co Coliseum anymore, and owner Mark Davis is reportedly trying to do something about that.
The San Antonio Express-News reported Tuesday that local leaders in San Antonio, Texas, confirmed that Davis and “two top lieutenants” met with officials to discuss moving the team from the Bay Area to the Lone Star State on July 18.
“I was asked to meet two weeks ago with the owner of the Oakland Raiders, Mark Davis, and members of his staff,” City Manager Sheryl Sculley wrote in a memo. “Mr. Davis has expressed interest in a possible relocation of his NFL team to San Antonio, and we are engaged in preliminary due diligence. The agenda for this visit included a tour of the Alamodome and meetings with local business leaders.”
Davis doesn’t necessarily want to move the team, but they don’t have the funds to build the new stadium that they actually want. And they would rather move than rent Levi’s Stadium from the San Francisco 49ers, which isn’t surprising considering they already share a stadium with the Oakland Athletics.
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The team’s lease in Oakland runs out after the 2014-15 season, and the Alamodome — a 65,000-seat stadium that has been the home of the San Antonio Spurs and the CFL’s San Antonio Texans, among others — is set to be renovated by 2015. Still, getting the NFL’s approval wouldn’t be easy.
Relocating to San Antonio would move the Raiders from the sixth-largest media market to the 36th, which isn’t a great selling point for the league. Not to mention, they’d also need the approval of 24 of the 32 NFL teams, two of which are in Texas.
Neither Davis nor the NFL had any comment on the situation.
Photo via USA Today Sports
