Raiders to San Antonio???

Once upon a time, I read somewhere that Al Davis stated that he would be willing to move the Raiders to a parking lot in Topeka, Kansas if necessary. Luckily, it has never come to this, but a day or two ago, a report surfaced alleging that Raiders owner Mark Davis met with city officials for the city of San Antonio, Texas, about the possibility of moving the Raiders there from Oakland. A few hours later (way too simply and expediently for the NFL, one would think), Davis confirmed the report. Just like that. No big deal.

WHAT?!?!?!

The Oakland flippin' Raiders moving to San Antonio?! My first thought: "NO! Texas is no place for a Raider!" My second thought: "At least it is not London or Toronto, but does Texas really need a third team?" My final conclusion:

OK, sure, the Raiders need a new home--not necessarily a new town, but certainly a new stadium; but, here's my primary question: Why not LA? 

Now some of you may be wondering, why move at all? Well, I am no expert on the Oakland stadium situation, but I can give you two good reasons: one, the Oakland Coliseum is a POS. Built way back in 1966, the Coliseum has since housed no fewer than six professional sports teams (football, baseball, and soccer); the Oakland A's of MLB have played there since 1968 (and will be there inviolate for at least ten more years) and the Raiders since it opened (with a 14-year hiatus between 1981 and 1995). The place is an antique, and it is no place for a football franchise these days. Second reason: attendance. Now, don't get me wrong, the Oakland fans are rabid, rowdy, and probably the last crew I'd like to tangle with--I mean, there is no other place like the Black Hole in all of football, but look up in the cheap seats. They are empty. Per ESPN, Oakland finished dead last in home attendance figures this past season, filling an average of only 80 percent of seats over the course of the year. The Oakland Coliseum sits over 63,000; average attendance: 50,444. That is 13,000 empty seats on average!!!

Where is everybody?!
(Photo used without permission from Wikipedia; will remove if asked by the proper authority.)

So back to my initial question, why not Los Angeles? First of all, the NFL needs to be in LA. It is absolutely ludicrous that Tinseltown--the second-largest market in America--does not have a football team. The Raiders, if they must move, would be perfect; they have a history in SoCal (so I would assume they already have at least the makings of a fan base too); LA is close enough to Oakland that the team could keep its current devotees; and it would fill the cavernous hole in the Universe that is the absence of an NFL team in Los Angeles. Find or build a place to play, and boom--problem solved.

If only it were that simple.

It is finding a place to play that is the problem, however. From what I have read, Mark Davis is hellbent on building his own, new stadium, preferably with plenty of help from the taxpayers, and complete with a statue of big daddy Al out front. I don't see these three wishes being granted in Oakland. In fact, it seems like a stretch about anywhere. Modern Americans don't seem so thrilled about publicly funded stadiums recently. Of the three most recently erected NFL stadiums, it was Jerryworld (AT&T Stadium, formerly Cowboys Stadium) that relied the most on public funds, and it was only 37-percent publicly funded (source: CBS). MetLife Stadium in New Jersey was 100-percent privately funded, while, most recently, the 49ers' Levi's Field was only 12-percent publicly funded. On top of financial issues, you have real-estate issues to deal with, too. My only speculation on this is that if it were easy to build a new football stadium in Los Angeles or nearby, somebody would have done it already, and besides, it looks like St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke is making the motions. But that is a different article for a different time.

All in all, I agree with those who see this as a leverage move on Davis' part to entice the public (or a rich, private fan like maybe Ice Cube) to step up financially and save the Raiders in Oakland. Will it work? Doubt it. And I think it likely that the Raiders eventually move on to greener pastures, whether it be LA, San Antonio, or a parking lot in Topeka, Kansas.