Oakland Raiders May Be The Little Matchstick Girl In Relocation Fight

The Oakland Raiders are looking increasingly likely to be the odd man out when the owners vote on relocation to LA next week.

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All of the drama and intrigue surrounding the relocation of either the Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers, and St. Louis Rams will be coming to a head next week when the NFL owners convene in Houston to vote on the issue. And thanks in part to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, there is a rising feeling that the Raiders will be the ones left out in the cold.

Unless of course, the owners vote to table the issue for another year, force all three teams to stay put, and kick the can down the road. But with a money pot that is Los Angeles that makes even the current Powerball jackpot look like the loose change you’d find between the cushions of your couch sitting there waiting to be cashed in, don’t bet on that outcome. The NFL owners, as we all know – or should know by this point – are driven by one thing and one thing alone: the Almighty Dollar.

Though Dean Spanos and Mark Davis have been married to a joint project in Carson, and Spanos has said numerous times that he’s “all in” on that project, the league’s owners can vote to break up that relationship. And a plan put forth by Dallas’ Jerry Jones aims to do just that – while shafting the Raiders in the process.

Jones is spearheading a plan to let the Rams and Chargers move and share a stadium in the LA market, with his preference being the Inglewood location. And according to reports, Jones has already sent a resolution to the owners pushing that “solution” to the logjam of a race to LA. That outcome would make Rams owner Stan Kroenke a very happy man, and while not the desired outcome he’s reiterated on numerous occasions, it would make Dean Spanos equally as happy since it would punch his ticket out of San Diego.

And then there would be the Raiders, left outside on the street like Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Matchstick Girl. Jones’ plan would leave the Raiders out in the cold, striking match after match until their dreams and hopes for a new stadium – one that doesn’t require duct tape and soda cups to “fix” leaks – are finally extinguished and die.

But then, perhaps we’re being too fatalistic about it. Per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, Jones’ proposed “solution” to the LA mess might also include throwing the Raiders a bone.

"“Regardless of location, a Rams-Chargers combo platter would leave the Raiders out in the cold. To get owner Mark Davis to go along with that, the total deal would likely include enough extra money to allow for Davis to build a new stadium in Oakland, or to otherwise give him a solution the mess he still has there.”"

It would “likely” include enough money to allow Davis to build a stadium in Oakland. Likely. But it’s also just as “likely” that the league – a league that seems to delight in screwing over the Raiders – will leave the Raiders out on that street corner with a book of matches and a few hollow words of encouragement before they skip off to count the stacks of money rolling in from their LA cash cow – or cows.

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Their partnership with Spanos and the Chargers, while not ideal, would give both teams a win. Davis can’t afford to fund a stadium on his own – and presumably, neither can the Chargers, given the amount of public assistance they required in San Diego. But if the owners vote to allow the Chargers to move, but not the Raiders, Spanos can’t really be blamed for taking it, running, and joining forces with Kroenke. Nor should he be. He has to do what’s right by his team.

Davis and the Raiders find themselves in a terrible position. Oakland mayor Libby Schaff and all of the politicos in the city as well as Alameda county will do next to nothing to help keep the Raiders – despite paying lip service to the idea that they want to. And if the owners vote to not allow the Raiders to move, they’ll have even less leverage to use to improve the situation with the stadium – a stadium that is absolutely substandard and in worse condition than even some of the high school and college stadiums in the area.

Jones has a lot of power and influence among league owners and there seems to be a rising feeling that his proposal of a Kroenke-Spanos LA union may very well be the outcome of next week’s vote. Which of course, leaves the Raiders stuck in a stadium that is being held together with duct tape and has locker rooms that are sometimes flooded with sewage. And ultimately, there may be nothing Davis can do about it.

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If Jones gets his way, the owners will be able to pad their pocketbooks with a ton of cash. And unless they do right by the Raiders after excluding them – cue laughter – the Rams and Chargers will be carving up the LA market and the league will have again gotten over on the ghost of Al Davis.

And Mark Davis is going to be stuck out on the cold street corner with nothing but an empty book of matches, an intolerable stadium situation, a city that will not work with him, and a dream that’s dead.

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