The Raiders Are Now Teasing With San Antonio...

((HT: The Score/San Antonio Express-News, Baugh and Orsborn))

Let's face it...

The Oakland Raiders are in a crappy stadium (sometimes, literally) at present. The Oakland Coliseum is in dire need of, really, being torn down and being rebuilt as a more state-of-the-art facility. Owner Mark Davis has been trumpeting the notion of a new barn. The NFL agrees with the Raiders. Commissioner Roger Goodell even volunteered the new 49ers stadium as a home for them as a secondary tenant.

Not an idea that the Raiders like...

At...all...

From the Express-News article:

Davis met with city officials, including Henry Cisneros, then-Mayor Julián Castro, City Manager Sheryl Sculley, Mario Hernandez of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation, and both Richard Perez and David McGee, the president and chairman of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, respectively.

Cisneros' son-in-law is in corporate sponsorship sales for the Raiders. And the thought is that the Alamodome could be ready in two seasons for any team that wants to play there.

It's not the first time a team would have inherited San Antonio. The Saints played there ten seasons ago as an alternate site for the New Orleans Saints during Hurricane Katrina recovery. The Gunslingers played at Alamo Stadium for their time in the USFL
((HT: ESPN))


There was also the Riders of the World League in the early 1990's


And the Texans from the American incursion of the CFL


The HQ posts all these flashbacks to act as the video portion of the teasing that the Raiders are doing with this dance and courting of a mid-30's television market.

Could The Athletics Finally Move...???

((HT: KPIX-TV))

When MLB Commissioner Bud Selig jumps in and actually tells the Oakland Athletics that they can get up and move if there's no new deal put together with the Oakland Coliseum board- that's huge news...

And, of course, it's put in the headlines at the same time as the A's made a great deal for starting pitching and are off to one of the best starts in the season for all of Major League Baseball.

If a new 10-year deal isn't put on the table and agreed to, could the A's go to San Antonio or Montreal...???

That's the question posed by SFGate's Matier and Ross quoting City Council President Larry Reid as saying the A's "have options."

Here's the analysis for now as everyone wonders if the City Council are ready to play chicken with a major tenant...


If Oakland moved to Montreal, it would cause upheaval in the American League Division structure. It would make more sense, for preservation sake, if Tampa was the team to go after years of failing (and flailing) support.

Warren Cromartie and the Montreal Baseball Project have been shouting from the rooftops about a downtown, retractable roof stadium that would give the city a more tenable place to watch a sport and team the city could wrap themselves around- as they did with the Expos.

San Antonio is mentioned, but the Alamodome is only 280-feet down the right field line. Optimistically, the right field foul pole at Fenway is listed at one distance, but may be really 297 feet.

Vegas...??? Too hot... and the gambling influence may be too much.
Sacramento and Portland are both top-25 markets, but the stadium sizes may not meet MLB spec.

So, all that does is drop you out of top-35 market sizes for a new barn that is ready for play immediately.

And a 16-14 split if the A's were to move to the National League...

This is an official headache...