When Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf meets tomorrow with NFL owners and execs, "one thing will be clear: This city isn’t begging to keep the [Raiders] by offering millions in public funds," according to Rachel Swan of the S.F. CHRONICLE. Oakland "won’t be presenting dazzling plans" for a new stadium, because it "has none." Schaaf will instead "emphasize Oakland’s booming economy and die-hard fan base." Schaaf: “We are not going to New York to present a project. We are going to present a market, and a partnership that puts the team in the center.” Schaaf said that she "will do anything she can to keep the Raiders in Oakland -- anything but spend another public cent on the team." Swan notes tomorrow's closed-door meeting "appears to be more of a diplomatic mission for Schaaf." She plans to "talk up what a great city Oakland is for a professional football team." Schaaf has said that while she "won’t support pouring public money into a new stadium, she would support investing" $90-120M in public funds "toward infrastructure improvements on the land that surrounds a new stadium." Swan notes a recent Oakland Chamber of Commerce poll showed the Raiders "ranked last on voters’ priority list," with only 31% of respondents saying that they "strongly favored building a new stadium" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 11/10).
