Raiders reportedly negotiating to play in Oakland through 2020 season
The Oakland Raiders may be negotiating to play at Oakland Alameda County Coliseum through 2020, but that doesn’t worry Clark County Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak.
“I’m sure they’re just trying to be cautious because it’s such a tight timeline” to build a $1.9 billion, 65,000-seat domed football stadium in Las Vegas, Sisolak said Monday night.
Sisolak has been monitoring the Raiders’ planned move to Las Vegas since the county must sign off on a development agreement on the high-impact project that would affect the area around Interstate 15 and Russell Road where the stadium would be built.
SFGate, the San Francisco Chronicle’s website, reported late Monday that Raiders President Marc Badain has been discussing extending the team’s lease in Oakland through the 2020 season with Scott McKibben, executive director of the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Authority.
The Raiders currently have an agreement to play at the Coliseum through 2018, but have no place to go in 2019.
The team has all but ruled out playing games at Sam Boyd Stadium where UNLV plays.
Stadium general contractors Mortenson Construction, Minneapolis, and Henderson’s McCarthy Building Cos. say they are confident they could complete the new stadium project in 31 months, the same timeline Mortenson built U.S. Bank Stadium, the new home of the Minnesota Vikings that opened last year.
“I knew they were looking at something for 2019 and Oakland would be ideal for them, obviously,” Sisolak said. “I don’t know if they wanted to add a year to be safe, but we’re still on target to get it (the stadium) done by 2020.”
Asked whether it bothered him that the Raiders would seek a lease into 2020, Sisolak said, “Nope. Not at all. I’ve been working with them regularly and they’re working with our staff on the development agreement and things are moving forward. I’m not at all worried. I think we’re in good shape.”
SFGate reported that McKibben said the team’s current contract with the authority will last through the 2018 season. Under the agreement, the Raiders pay $3.5 million in rent, and its revenue from parking, concessions, beverages and club dues are split with the public agency. The city and county pay for game-day expenses, such as police overtime and converting the field when Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics and the Raiders’ seasons overlap.
“For sure we are talking about a one-year extension and there’s a real likelihood we could be talking about two years,” McKibben told SFGate.
McKibben did not return calls to the Las Vegas Review-Journal about a lease extension when reports first surfaced earlier this month.
The Raiders and the Las Vegas Stadium Authority are preparing a series of agreements that would finalize the team’s relocation to Southern Nevada and a commitment to participate in the stadium’s construction.
The Las Vegas Stadium Authority anticipated signing those agreements in October, but the board has agreed to extend the deadline by six months. Team and authority officials now believe the final sign-offs would occur by February and the board is preparing a separate agreement to spell out what kind of preconstruction site work can be done before the development agreement is signed.
Yet to be completed is a joint-use agreement that would enable the UNLV football team to play at the stadium, the county agreement that would hammer out a proposed game-day parking plan and a community benefits plan that would outline the team’s commitment to contract with small businesses and minority subcontractors and suppliers.
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Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.
