Oakland Raiders: Temporary San Diego move could benefit both parties
The Oakland Raiders will be moving to Las Vegas come 2020, but where will they play this year? Could San Diego be a viable option?
It’s 2019, which means the Oakland Raiders no longer have a home in Oakland. We know they will be the Las Vegas Raiders in 2020, but where they will play this year is still up in the air. The latest rumor is America’s Finest City, San Diego.
According to a San Diego sports radio station, Raiders management and the City of San Diego have been in talks the last couple days over the prospect of this happening.
San Diego Stadium (formerly, Qualcomm Stadium) is the former home of the San Diego Chargers. The stadium is now solely used for San Diego State University football. As an SDSU Aztec myself, I may be biased, but I think the Raiders should play in San Diego this upcoming season.
I transferred to SDSU the year that the Chargers moved to Los Angeles. Every Target and Walmart had San Diego Chargers gear on clearance, and you could feel the mourning and loss in the air.
That year, SDSU adopted a new football slogan: “One City, One Team.” Once the Chargers left, the only football team remaining in the area was SDSU. Many Chargers fans started supporting SDSU football instead of staying loyal after the move to LA.
Qualcomm Stadium was a place where all of San Diego came together on Sundays to celebrate their home team. In the blink of an eye, their Sunday pastime, tailgates, and team were gone. SDSU games are the way that San Diegans are getting that feeling back, only on Saturdays now.
It is obvious that San Diego is a football-loving town. If the Raiders choose to spend the year playing at San Diego Stadium, they could very well garner new support from former Chargers fans who lost their team.
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Now San Diego Stadium is not the most pristine stadium… at all, (there’s a reason SDSU is building a new football stadium) ,but it has seen its fair share of NFL football. As a lifelong San Francisco 49ers fan, I can tell you it’s worse than Candlestick Park in its last legs, but it is more than perfect as a temporary home for the Raiders.
Bay Area Raiders fans will be going through the exact same thing that Chargers fans had to go through just a couple years ago. San Diego fans may see this as a reason to dislike the Raiders, but they may also simply take advantage of having a professional team again.
Even though the Raiders were once rivals of many San Diegans, perhaps they could take solace in having an NFL team back in their area, even if only for a season.
The big question: What happens when the Raiders are due to play the Chargers at home? Yeah, I know, AWKWARD. Apparently the NFL would avoid this by having the two teams play the game internationally. The Raiders would still be considered the home team, but they would play in London or perhaps Mexico City. CRISIS AVERTED.
Next. Pending free agents the Raiders should re-sign. dark
It is not set in stone that the Raiders will play in San Diego this year, but as a Bay Area Native and current San Diego resident, I think it would be a great move for both the Raiders and the city and people of San Diego.