All For One Stadium

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The NFL should know better. They are trying to insert logic into the 49er-Raiders stadium fiasco.

The league recently urged the Raiders and 49ers to share a venue in Santa Clara where the 49ers are attempting to pass measure that would allow them access to over $100 million in public money in their effort to build a $916 million stadium.

Sharing the effort with the Raiders would mean doubling the dates, which would make the stadium far more viable. But it would also mean the Yorks and Al Davis would have to get together on the deal, and these two parties have proven to be deal breakers, not makers.

According to city of San Francisco, John York capriciously pulled out of negotiations on a stadium deal in San Francisco. Davis went far down the road on deal created by the NFL and former 49ers president Carmen Policy to keep the team in Los Angeles, but Davis eventually shunned the deal. More recently, Davis was courted by a group of New York investors who wanted to buy minority interest in the Raiders. Again, Davis showed interest initially, but once things got serious, he backpedaled.

In these shaky financial times, it would make great sense to share the effort, but the romantic notion of the Raiders playing in Oakland and the 49ers playing in San Francisco still holds an allure. The 49ers were the first professional team to get established in the city. Former mayor Diane Feinstein said the 49ers' success in 1980's helped drag the city out a dreadful time marked by the Jonestown massacre, the assasinations of Harvey Milk and George Moscone, and the AIDS epidemic.

What other team has such a tight history with its city?

And the Black Hole in Santa Clara? The Silicon Valley is just as the names describe, it's little soulless and antiseptic with its strip malls and low-slung computer company campuses. How will the earthy, underdog, silver-and-black costumes fit in that environment? More importantly, would Santa Clara ever approve a measure with the Raiders on the ticket?

Posted By: Kevin Lynch (Email) | January 27 2009 at 10:03 AM

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