Oakland Raiders: Kephart’s Stadium Proposal An Atrocious Money Grab
By Kevin Saito
Fans of the Oakland Raiders have obviously – and understandably – grown weary of all of the talk and column space devoted to the team’s ongoing stadium saga and are ready for it to be over. And it seems that both the city of Oakland and Floyd Kephart’s New City Development firm have too, since the proposal put forward on the Coliseum City project seems to be nothing but a big middle finger to Mark Davis and the Raiders – and all but guarantees that the team will be calling LA home sooner rather than later.
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Look, we get it. The stadium situation is tedious, dry, boring, and all we want is some actual news related to football. Actually, what we all want is some actual football. But if you happen to be a Raider fan living in the Bay Area, this is a pretty big deal since what you stand to lose is the chance to see your team live and in person since they will cease to be the Oakland Raiders (again) and become the Los Angeles Raiders (again).
If you care about the Raiders remaining in the Bay Area, it’s a pretty big deal.
Though specific details of the proposal have not been released by the team or the city given the confidentiality agreement, a brief of the proposal was obtained by the Bay Area News Group, and writer Matthew Artz summed it up nicely.
According to the details outlined in the brief, the proposed deal would have one big beneficiary – Floyd Kephart.
Among the more terrible aspects of Kephart’s proposal – and there are many – is a provision which mandates that Mark Davis must sell a 20 percent share of the Raiders to Kephart’s New City Development group for $200 million dollars.
Kephart’s plan also calls for the Raiders to fund the proposed 55,000 seat stadium entirely on their own using money from the league, as well as their future stadium revenues and naming rights money – among other revenue streams – to re-pay the nearly $300 million dollars in loans that would be required to close the funding gap between what Davis and the Raiders, in conjunction with the NFL, can pony up now.
Kephart also plans to use the land around the Coliseum – 90 acres he’d purchase from the city and county for a cool $116 million – to develop and build a “live-work-play” campus that will include retail stores, office space, 400 plus hotel rooms, and more than 4,000 homes. Of that, the Raiders would get absolutely zero in revenue and subsidies.
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If you’re scoring at home, the deal proposed by Kephart would force Davis to essentially fund the project on his own, and sell off a portion of the team to do it. Now, contrast that with the proposal down in San Diego, where local officials have proposed public subsidies to help finance a new stadium and keep the Chargers in town.
Marc Ganis, whose consulting firm SportsCorp, Ltd. Has been involved in several NFL stadium deals – including the one that brought the Raiders back to Oakland had this to say about Kephart’s proposal:
"“This is not just the worst stadium proposal I’ve seen. It’s the worst by far. I can’t think of any sports team owner that would take a proposal like this even remotely seriously. It’s so one-sided and so bad, that it’s almost as if local leaders are saying ‘we can’t really do anything, so go ahead and leave.”"
And perhaps, that’s been the intention of mayor Libby Schaff and Oakland’s city council all along – to cut the Raiders loose and let them go their own way. In which case, the entire dog and pony show that has dragged on and on, and has frustrated Raider fans by the score, has been entirely unnecessary.
Schaff and her city council colleagues have been opposed to using any form of public money to help finance a deal for Davis and the Raiders from the start. And neither the city of Oakland or Alameda County seem to have moved an inch from that position. This, despite the fact that having the Raiders in town creates jobs and brings money into the city’s coffers.
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The city of Oakland has gotten the A’s to sign a 10-year deal to stay at the Coliseum, despite the fact that it is a substandard venue. It is the only stadium in professional sports that forces a baseball and football team to co-exist, and its facilities are completely outdated. However, the A’s have been willing to play ball with the city, and the fact that the A’s play 81 games a year there, as opposed to the eight the Raiders play may have something to do with the city of Oakland being more willing to work with the A’s rather than the Raiders.
City and county officials are scheduled to discuss Kephart’s plan on Tuesday, and that will give us all an indication of whether or not they are serious about keeping the Raiders in town. If they sign off on what is an atrocious, self serving, money grab of a deal proposed by Kephart, we will all know that the city and county have basically given the Raiders their walking papers.
If they choose to send it back to Kephart for further review, perhaps there is some hope – and common sense – still in play.
Mark Davis has long stated – and reiterated a million different times and ways – that his goal is to keep the Raiders in Oakland. The team is a part of the city’s identity. The Raiders are part of the fabric of the community. He knows this, respects this, and wants to maintain that relationship. At this point, it’s entities within the local government – as well as various other self-serving individuals – who seem to be the sticking point.
There is no doubt that Kephart’s proposal is unacceptable. There is as much of a chance of him accepting this plan as it is as there is of the sun not rising tomorrow. If the city of Oakland and Alameda County are serious about trying to keep the Raiders in town, now is the chance for them to step up and prove it.
Floyd Kephart’s plan, as it is currently devised, is nothing more than a money grab aimed at filling his pocketbook. If the city and county accept this plan, it’s nothing more than a big middle finger to Mark Davis and we’ll likely have to get used to saying Los Angeles Raiders once more.