After NFL Meeting, Schaaf Remains 'Focused' On Keeping Raiders In Oakland
OAKLAND (CBS SF) – Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said Thursday that she remains focused on trying to keep the Raiders football team in her city even though the team has hired Walt Disney Inc. chief executive Robert Iger to lead its effort to build a new stadium in the Los Angeles area.
Shortly after returning from a trip to New York where she met with National Football League owners, Schaaf said at a packed news conference in her office, "I can't let the Los Angeles story distract me from my goals," which she said are helping build a new stadium in Oakland to keep the Raiders in town.
Shortly before Schaaf and other city officials met with NFL owners on Wednesday, the Raiders announced that they have joined with the San Diego Chargers in hiring Iger to help their bid to build a new stadium in Carson, a Los Angeles suburb, that they would share.
Many observers believe the decision to hire Iger was a milestone in the Raiders' bid to move to Carson.
But Schaaf said she still believes Raiders owner Mark Davis's statements that he would prefer to stay in Oakland if a new stadium could be built in the city.
"I take him at his word that he wants to stay in Oakland," Schaaf said.
The mayor said, "I need to treat him (Davis) as a trusted person in order to get something done. I'm a very focused person."
The cities of St. Louis and San Diego joined Oakland in giving presentations to a joint meeting of the NFL's Los Angeles, Stadium and Finance committees on Wednesday.
The Chargers are considering joining the Raiders at a new stadium in Carson and the St. Louis Rams are considering moving to a new stadium in Inglewood, which also is in the Los Angeles area.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said teams that want to apply to relocate to a new city may do so between Jan. 1 and Feb. 15 next year but three-fourths of the owners of the league's 32 teams must approve any team moves.
Oakland City Councilman Larry Reid, who chairs the board that oversees the operations at the Oakland Coliseum complex, said the toughest questions NFL owners asked at the meeting were about the city's timeline for building a new football stadium.
Schaaf said Oakland doesn't yet have a firm stadium proposal but promised the owners that they would make "significant progress" on a plan in the next two months.
Schaaf said the city won't directly help the Raiders pay the cost of building a new stadium but is prepared to pay for infrastructure improvements on the 120-acre Coliseum site.
"We won't directly subsidize the cost of a new stadium but we can use public tools to help monetize revenues and help with development rights" at the complex, Schaaf said.
Reid acknowledged to NFL owners that Oakland has "fumbled" previous development efforts at the Coliseum complex and that valuable time has been lost, Schaaf said.
"I respect that Mark Davis and the Raiders organization are frustrated with Oakland because there have been a lot of fits and starts" over the past six years, Schaaf said. "That's why the Raiders are looking at other options but they still want to stay in Oakland."
"We're at a critical juncture in keeping the Raiders" in Oakland, Schaaf said. "We don't want them to go to Los Angeles and we want them to stay home where they belong."
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