The saga of Mark Davis looking for a temporary home for his relocating Raiders took another stupid turn this week, after the team reportedly arrived at a plan to play their home games in nearby San Francisco. Turns out that plan, like so many of this idiot organization’s endeavors, was a big dumb non-starter.
The announcement came down Sunday evening, that the Raiders had reached an agreement to play their home games next season at the ballpark of the San Francisco Giants:
That agreement was subject to the 49ers making room for the Raiders by waiving their territorial rights to the San Francisco market. It should be noted that no one was especially enthusiastic about this plan, least of all San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who said that hosting Raiders home games in 2019 would be an unacceptable burden for San Francisco’s transportation infrastructure, and that the Raiders “should play in Oakland.”
Mayor Breed wasn’t alone on this. The Warriors, who are currently building an arena in the neighborhood ahead of their own move out of Oakland, reportedly hated the plan, as did San Francisco’s city council. Ultimately the resolution doesn’t require the approval or support of anyone but the NFL and the 49ers, which is why it seems like an agreement by the York family to waive territorial rights is the kind of thing the Raiders should’ve worked out before making plans with the Giants. These being the Raiders, that’s not how it went down, which is why today’s reporting reads more like a savage uppercut than it otherwise would’ve:
Scratch San Francisco off the list. Roger Goodell also recently shut down the idea of the Raiders temporarily relocating to San Diego. Apparently there still exists a possibility of the Raiders returning to the Coliseum next season, but at this point there’s a non-zero chance that the team winds up playing their 2019 home schedule in a different Walmart parking lot each week. Which honestly feels just right.