Oakland City Administrator Deanna Santana and Assistant City Administrator Fred Blackwell on Monday said that the Raiders "can't depend on the NFL chipping in for a new stadium in Oakland, as it did for the 49ers in Santa Clara, unless the team generates more fan and corporate support," according to Matthew Artz of the OAKLAND TRIBUNE. Santana and Blackwell said that the NFL is "concerned with the gulf between what the 49ers have been able to charge for premium seating at its future stadium and what the Raiders have been getting in Oakland." NFL Senior VP/PR Greg Aiello yesterday said the Raiders "can apply for league loans" of up to $200M. Raiders Chief Exec Amy Trask "declined to address whether the team needed to shore up community and corporate support before seeking financing help from the league." Artz writes the Raiders "want to stay, but haven't had business leaders rally to their side." With only 10 home dates per season, the team is "hardly the ideal primary tenant for an entertainment center that needs to be buzzing most nights of the week." The "only proven model for limiting public funding" of NFL stadiums is for fans and businesses to "pay top dollar for luxury suites and the right merely to purchase season tickets." It was a "disaster for city and county taxpayers" when the Raiders moved back to Oakland in '95. Lackluster sales of "so-called personal seat licenses forced the public to cover the costs of renovating the Coliseum for the Raiders return" (OAKLAND TRIBUNE, 2/20).
