The Raiders' O.co Coliseum lease expires shortly after the club plays its final home game of the '13 season, and league officials quietly have "made several trips to the Bay Area to try to secure a new lease with the outdated facility," according to sources cited by Jason La Canfora of CBSSPORTS.com. The "most likely solution to the issue is a short-team lease there ... but, the reality exists that come February the Raiders could technically be free agents." The NFL "does not seem alarmed by the unusual situation, however, and there is a sense that as a free agent the Raiders would have substantial leverage with the Oakland-Alameda area in their talks on a new lease." Raiders Owner Mark Davis is "pushing for the possibility of getting a new stadium built in the area." But sources believe that this is a "near impossibility given the current state of the economy there and the political climate." La Canfora reported there is "no sense within the league that any site in the L.A. area is even close to being in play right now, and many league sources doubt Davis would be deemed the owner to land in that market, anyway." But the Raiders are expected "to be able to pick up and move quickly and easily if need be" even with a short-term lease (CBSSPORTS.com, 10/13).
CHARGERS' FUTURE IN SAN DIEGO TENUOUS: In San Diego, Kevin Acee wrote the Chargers avoided becoming the first team since '99 to have a "MNF" telecast blacked out in their home market for tonight's game against the Colts "because they and ESPN bartered with and begged sponsors to pick up the remaining 8,500 tickets." The "way things are going, they won’t be your team for too long," and this is the "truth about the issue that hovers like a threatening cloud for every Chargers fan." It is "not impossible to see the Chargers staying in their hometown of 43 years long term, but you have to squint and really want to make out the shape of a new stadium." In trying to "make sense of the big picture, it’s difficult to view recent happenings and not see that the Chargers’ future in San Diego is increasingly tenuous" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 10/13).
