Matthew Farnham: Oakland Raiders say farewell to spiritual home

Raiders fans say goodbye to their home stadium. Picture: AP

T  he Oakland Raiders are no more. But the Raider Nation will continue with their rabid fans after one of the NFL’s most storied franchises played their last game in Oakland before heading to their soon to be finished new Las Vegas home.

Moving home isn’t a new thing for the Raiders fans though as the franchise has left Oakland before. Then, owner Al Davis upped sticks and moved the team to LA. That move lasted 12 years before the Silver and Black returned to their spiritual home.

But the same reason they left nearly 40 years ago is why current owner Mark Davis (son of Al) is taking the organisation to Las Vegas, the refusal of the city of Oakland to pay for much-needed upgrades to the Oakland Alameda Coliseum.

After years of negotiations, both in private and through the very public media, the two sides couldn’t reach an agreement on how to upgrade or rebuild the stadium, so in true billionaire fashion, Davis is taking his ball and going home – well, to a new home anyway.

This is where the money rules the NFL.

Las Vegas has been desperate to get professional sports franchises in the city and two seasons ago the addition of the Golden Knights NHL franchise proved to be a success, so far.

But the refusal of one of the poorest regions in America to build a new stadium was undoubtedly the right one. An area that has long been suffering from an economic downturn is now being admonished for its unwillingness to spend $1 billion on premises for an average team.

The NFL reportedly made a profit of $8.1b last year yet would punish a region for being poor and move a team to an area that has a mostly transient population. Yes the NHL has managed to succeed in bringing fans to the games but filling 18,000 seats in an air-conditioned building is not the same as filling a 65,000-seat stadium in the middle of the desert.

In the last game at the Coliseum the Raiders fell to the Jacksonville Jaguars 20-16, another inferior product that Davis and the organisation rolled out on to the field.