ONN – This is the Oakland Raiders New Coliseum NFL Stadium Concept Design and Drawings by MEIS Architects, commissioned by the Oakland Raiders in 2016, but not posted by MEIS Architects until this year, 2018.
s in 2016, but never shown to the public. Except for pages on the MEIS Architects website, there’s no record of any news organization showing this to a public audience.
The reason for this one can only guess is because the Raiders didn’t want anyone to see it. Moreover, the Silver and Black didn’t want MEIS Architects to show this, either.
UPDATE: The Oakland Raiders has the plan done in secret. It was secretly ordered by an Alameda county official at the Raiders request in 2016 and then sent to the Raiders organization. Claudia Cappio, who was then Oakland CAO, was in the meeting at Raiders HQ, as was one other person who’s name I can’t yet reveal until they say it’s OK. This is not the Floyd Kephart plan. Floyd was removed from the project by Mayor Schaaf in 2015.
Moreover, a look at the MEIS Architects website coding for the webpage on the Raiders reveals a note that says “dan-meis-2018” – that means the website page was installed in this year, even though the project was done for the Oakland Raiders in 2016.
Which brings up a lot of questions.
Did the NFL see this? Did Libby Schaaf, the Mayor of Oakland, see the New Raiders Coliseum Stadium Design? Who has seen it, and why did they cover up its existence?
As to the question “Where are Oakland Raiders new Coliseum NFL stadium drawings?,” the answer is, we’ve found them.
MEIS Architects and Oakland Raiders As Client Planned 75,000 Seat Stadium For Oakland
“Design study for a 75,000 seat NFL Stadium for the Oakland Raiders. In an effort to retain the Raiders in the Oakland Market, MEIS was engaged to design a cost-effective state of the art stadium. The design embodies the brand of the Raiders in a structurally expressive design in black steel and silver metal panels.
PROJECT STATISTICS
Location: Oakland, CA USA
Client: Oakland Raiders
Size: 75,000 seats
Year: 2016
Cost: Confidential
Project Type: Stadium, Sports-Anchored Districts, Interior Design and Branding, Sponsor Integration & Activation”
The design is actually two concepts: one that’s a box frame style much like the new Miami Dolphins Stadium, and the Other a design that copies the Seattle CenturyLink Stadium, which is known for a configuration that brings the fans close to the field.
There are other innovations in the concept by MEIS Architects, most notably the setup for what seems to be a kind of combination of tailgate and luxury suites.
So, this MEIS Architects Oakland Raiders New Stadium Design was made in 2016, and would seem to answer the question I asked Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley about a new stadium in 2016. Then, Miley told me that he had seen drawings for a new Raiders Stadium at the team’s headquarters. Miley said that it looked a little “like the Seattle Stadium.”
Indeed, one of the concepts shown on the MEIS website was for a stadium in Oakland that looked a lot like CenturyLink Stadium it its design. But the MEIS Architects design never saw the eye of the public until now, and when they put up the web-page, this year, 2018.
Even then, as noted in the livestream, the MEIS Architects website does not list the Oakland Raiders Stadium Design Study in its menu list of projects, and that includes NFL stadiums in Los Angeles and in San Diego. So, why was this covered up?
Why Did The Oakland Raiders Hide Plans For A New Coliseum Stadium From The Public?
This blogger will offer one speculation: that the Raiders may not have wanted the NFL to know it had a plan for Oakland. That way, the Raiders could invent the idea that there was no Oakland plan, and that Las Vegas had the only plan.
It also helps to explain why Larry McNeil, who the Oakland Raiders hired as their stadium point person in 2016, is now nowhere to be seen. It’s hard to find out what happened to him, or who he’s working for now. Why?
The one set of documents that focuses on what McNeil did was a series of emails between he and then-Oakland City Administrator Claudia Cappio in 2016, and centering around the infrastructure plan for the Coliseum City concept. But the email trail stops on September 8th 2015 and with a proposed meeting, but no date or time agreed to. Did McNeil commission MEIS Architects for the design project on behalf of the Oakland Raiders?
Also, why did the Raiders not use the MEIS Architects stadium concept for Las Vegas Stadium, and instead use the Carson Stadium concept that was created by MANICA Architects?
And again, was NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made aware of this design, as well as the NFL Owners?
This marks a new development in this ongoing and messy saga of the Oakland Raiders quest for a new stadium.
It also would seem to add to the City of Oakland lawsuit and the claim that the Raiders were not working with Oakland using “good faith business dealing.”
UPDATE:
Dan Meis of MEIS Architects stepped forward on social media with this tweet that gives more questions than answers…
Nothing sinister here. Concepts were created for a confidential developer, NOT the Raiders. Client was hoping to keep Raiders in the Bay Area.
— danmeis (@Meisarch) December 17, 2018
First, was the developer in conversation with the Oakland Raiders? Second, was this for a stadium outside Oakland but in Alameda County? Third, what became of the plan negotiations? And why post the design now, in 2018, for a 2016 project?
Stay tuned.
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