Oakland Coliseum JPA Agenda For February Indicates Raiders Lease Done
ONN – Oakland Coliseum JPA Agenda For February Indicates Raiders Lease Done
The Oakland Raiders appear to have made a major step toward playing NFL football at the Oakland Coliseum for the 2019 and 2020 NFL Seasons. A source who did not wish to be known, texted a copy of the new agenda for the Friday February 15th meeting of the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Joint Powers Authority.
The agenda for that meeting includes these words:
7. CLOSED SESSION
7a. Pursuant to California Government Code Section 54956.8:
CONFERENCE WITH REAL PROPERTY NEGOTIATORSProperty: 7000 Coliseum Way Oakland, CA 94621
Agency Negotiator: Scott McKibben, Executive Director Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Authority
Negotiating Parties: Mark Davis, Principal Owner and Managing Partner, Oakland Raiders
Under Negotiation: Price and terms of payment for license agreement extension
The words “Under Negotiation: Price and terms of payment for license agreement extension” are new and indicate two things: 1) the Oakland Coliseum JPA has offered a “price and terms of payment” for the “ license agreement extension”, and the Oakland Raiders have either accepted that proposal, or offered a counter for the Coliseum JPA Board to consider.
Given the way this has gone, it’s a fair hypothesis that there’s a done deal. Having written that, the word from Oakland official is that “Sometime in the next week this will be settled.”
In the history of this, it looks like the Raiders are staying home in Oakland for 2019 and 2020 NFL Seasons.
How We Got Here To This Crazy Oakland Raiders Place
How did we get to this crazy place of news and tweets and blog posts and videos turning on every move and words? To understand, one has to briefly go back to March 27th, 2017, and the National Football League Owners Meeting where the leadership voted 31 to 1 to allow the Oakland Raiders to embark on a “conditional” relocation to Las Vegas.
That decision angered Oakland Raiders Fans, who called for the City of Oakland and the County of Alameda, which together control the Coliseum JPA, to evict the Raiders from the storied sports palace. The Raiders eventually settled on a deal where they paid $3.5 million in rent in 2018 – the highest level in the history of the Silver and Black in Oakland.
The lease extention for 2019 and 2020 was to have a rent level of $10 million at one point. But cooler heads, encouraged by former Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, managed to lower that to its present level of $7.5 million. Last week, when Coliseum JPA Executive Director Scott McKibben met with Raiders President Marc Badain, that rent level remained in the proposal unchanged.
City Of Oakland Files Lawsuit Against The Oakland Raiders and The NFL
In December, the Oakland City Attorney filed a lawsuit against the Oakland Raiders and The NFL, and for alleged violations of anti-trust and good-faith dealing. Barbara Parker, the Oakland lead lawyer, was given the permission to do this back in July 2018, and before the Oakland City Council took its summer recess. That action sent Davis to the moon.
Angry, Mark Davis frantically searched for a new place for his Raiders to play. Las Vegas had no venue that could be made NFL ready for a reasonable amount of money. Berkeley, San Diego, and even San Antonio and London did not work out for various reasons.
Finally, there was San Francisco, but the powerful Gavin Newsom-helmed California Democratic political bloc of which Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf is a vital part blocked the Raiders attempt to get a deal done with the San Francisco Giants, and influenced the 49ers Owner Jed York to not grant jurisdictional rights to Davis and the Raiders.
The Oakland Coliseum was left standing.
And, indeed, at $18 million less than the estimated $25 million the Oakland Raiders would have to pay to play at Levi Stadium (if a deal could be worked out), the historically recognized home of the Raiders is also the most financially sensible place for the organization to be. (As an added note, the rent for the 2020 NFL Season will go up from $7.5 million to $10.5 million.)
More on this to come.
Stay tuned.
Note: full agenda for Friday’s Coliseum JPA meeting:
Oakland-Alameda County
Coliseum AuthorityOAKLAND-ALAMEDA COUNTY COLISEUM AUTHORITY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
ORACLE ARENA PLAZA CLUB
7000 COLISEUM WAY
OAKLAND, CA 94621Friday, February 15, 2019
8:30 a.m.1. CALL TO ORDER
2. ROLL CALL
3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
4. OPEN FORUM
5. REPORTS
5a. Executive Director’s Report• Coliseum Naming Rights
• Homeless encampment/ project on Coliseum Property
• Ticket Policy5b. General Manager’s Report
6. NEW BUSINESS
7. CLOSED SESSION
7a. Pursuant to California Government Code Section 54956.8:
CONFERENCE WITH REAL PROPERTY NEGOTIATORSProperty: 7000 Coliseum Way Oakland, CA 94621
Agency Negotiator: Scott McKibben, Executive Director Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Authority
Negotiating Parties: Mark Davis, Principal Owner and Managing Partner, Oakland Raiders
Under Negotiation: Price and terms of payment for license agreement extension7b. CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL – POTENTIAL LITIGATION
Initiation of litigation pursuant to Subdivision (d)(4) of Government Code § 54956.9: (Five Cases)8. REPORT FROM COUNSEL ON CLOSED SESSION
9. ADJOURNMENT
Oakland News Now Note: this post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest version of an experimental Zennie62Media mobile media video-blogging system network – part of a new approach to the production of media. The uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 on YouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and social media pages. The objective is real-time on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. We are constantly working to improve the system network coding and also seek interested content and media technology partners.