Raiders Want Local Community To Clean Up Area Around Coliseum

Raiders Want Oakland, Alameda County To Redevelop Land Around McAfee Coliseum

The Raiders have three seasons left on their lease at McAfee Coliseum, and the franchise is "once again putting the team's future in play," according to Matier & Ross of the S.F. CHRONICLE. The team "wants locals to turn the area around the Coliseum into a full-fledged retail and entertainment district -- complete with a new, football-only stadium." Raiders CEO Amy Trask said, "We need to find a way to revitalize the area. What we have suggested is not just a stadium, but something to bring business enterprise and activity to a part of the community that needs it." Matier & Ross report the Raiders want the city of Oakland and Alameda County -- "which are still on the hook to the tune of $22[M] a year for the 1995 rebuild of the stadium and subsequent makeover of the Coliseum arena -- to help finance the dream plan." Trask: "It has to be what the NFL describes as a public-private partnership" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 9/8).

TAKING CHARGE: A SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE editorial stated the Chargers "can opt out of its lease with the city after the 2008 season and move," and the "likelihood of a new stadium on the Chula Vista bayfront seems less and less probable." However, "success on the field seems to be key." The Padres' '98 World Series appearance "dovetailed with voter approval of public spending on Petco Park," and the original '95 deal to expand Jack Murphy Stadium "was struck just months after the Chargers' only Super Bowl appearance" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 9/6).