Raiders May Be Using San Antonio To Gain Leverage For California Stadium
OAKLAND (KCBS) — In a move to lure the Oakland Raiders to San Antonio, former Mayor and Clinton Cabinet member Henry Cisneros is meeting with team owner Mark Davis on Friday, just four months after Davis toured the Alamodome and declared it suitable for play.
The Raiders' lease at the Coliseum runs out at the end of this season and while Davis has said he wants to keep them team here, he also wants a new stadium.
The efforts, however, have hit a brick wall in years past.
"The bigger concern for Oakland should be Los Angeles,"Jason Cole, a sportswriter from the Bleacher Report, told KCBS.
Cole said Friday's meeting with Cisneros is likely a leveraged attempt by Davis to get a deal cooking elsewhere in California—but the Raiders are not alone, the Rams and the Chargers are also looking.
"There's basically three teams that are circling Los Angeles trying to figure out how they make their way to L.A.," Cole said, They're all worth about $1 billion and if they move to L.A., they at least double, if not triple the value of their franchise."
Cole also said the Dallas Cowboys and the Houston Texans aren't thrilled at the notion of welcoming a third NFL team to the state.