by Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND–Let the free land give away begin, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said that the Oakland Raiders would get to develop a new stadium on land that would belong to the Raiders and it would all be for free from the city of Oakland according to Oakland Mayor Quan. The Coliseum would be demolished the cost for the new stadium would run $900 million to $1.2 billion.

The Raiders who said they wanted to blow up the existing Coliseum and build their new stadium at the current site but were turned off when the city offered the Oakland A’s a ten year lease at the Coliseum the supporter’s attorney Zach Wasserman said that the “basic terms of the deal” financially have been worked out amongst the city and the Raiders.

In the event that the A’s are not satisfied with the supporters group land would be offered to the A’s and team owners Lew Wolf and John Fisher. The offer most likely would be that the Raiders and A’s would have seperate stadiums at what city officials would call the “Coliseum City” There would be hotels and restaurants built at the Coliseum City and a whole complex of shopping and the city of Oakland saw the light and at the threat of losing the two teams they realized the economic importance of having the A’s and Raiders in Oakland.

The A’s have not responded to the latest notion that the Raiders would have a new stadium and free land but would be happy if the lease agreement they just signed would be ripped up and that they would receive a new stadium and new FREE land at the Coliseum site. The A’s would have their own park and they won’t be sharing it with the Raiders and won’t have the field marked up like it is today and after a couple of Raiders games if the A’s are still in the playoffs the field won’t be ripped up in a new stadium setting.

The plan is to have the existing Coliseum come down but there is no mention of any plans for the arena to come down and that would be obviously after the Warriors move to San Francisco. There has not been any mention by the powers that be if there is any plans for the arena to ripped down. The plan as of now is that the new stadiums would be built on the existing properties for the A’s and Raiders.

The question is what are they going to do about the parking and they might have to buy some land across fron 880 to accomadate the people for parking. There is still excellent transit that exists that comes right to the stadium for both of them and it should work out. This will be a big boon economically for the construction contractors and the city of Oakland.

It’s no secret the tax payers will be on the hook for the bill for these projects and there is $120 million that has to be paid off for building Mount Davis. It will be absorbed into a new loan, a refinanced package or what the supporters come up with. The Raiders might get some support from the NFL in paying for the stadium. The people in L.A. were looking for some help from the NFL and the NFL should be helping the Raiders in building a new stadium.