Raiders Moving To Los Angeles For Next Season? CBS Insider Says They're 'Very Interested'
OAKLAND (CBS SF) - There may be just two games left for the Oakland Raiders franchise, according to a new report from CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora.
La Canfora reports - sighting league sources - that both the Raiders and St. Louis Rams are "very interested in playing in Los Angeles in 2015." He says executives confirmed interest in moving to LA from multiple teams during meetings last week and noted that "it is seen as a forgone conclusion that some team is playing in the Rose Bowl on an interim basis by 2016 while a new stadium is being constructed."
Ultimately, the league will control process of moving one or more teams to the city. Currently the construction of a modern stadium appears to be the primary stumbling block.
Recently the Raiders have been linked with the City of San Antonio as a future destination for the franchise. Some speculate that those talks are a negotiating ploy to speed up the process of stadium construction in Oakland or Los Angeles.
"There's basically three teams that are circling Los Angeles trying to figure out how they make their way to L.A.," Jason Cole, a sportswriter from the Bleacher Report, told KCBS in November. "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."
It has been two decades to the month since the Raiders and Rams played their last games in Los Angeles, now both franchises are eying a return to the nation's second-largest television market.
The Raiders are the lone remaining NFL team that shares its stadium with a Major League Baseball franchise. When the A's reached an extension with the Coliseum Authority earlier this year many suggested the roommate situation would hasten the departure of the Silver & Black.
"It's extremely risky," said Bryan Cauwels, president of booster group Save Oakland Sports during a June interview. "I do believe this could result in the Raiders leaving Oakland by signing the agreement."
The current Raiders lease runs out at the end of this year.
The Raiders are the only one among the three Oakland teams - including the Warriors - who have indicated they want to stay in Oakland long term.
"We're trying to get something done up here," owner Mark Davis said this summer, "but if we can't, we've got to get something done somewhere."
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