new team Could the NFL Return to Oakland with a Majority-Black-Owned Team?

[Walk-Off]

The African American Sports & Entertainment Group -- an Oakland, California-based alliance of Black business people and community leaders -- wants to buy the City of Oakland's 50% share of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum complex.  (The Alameda County government agreed to sell its 50% interest in that tract of land to MLB's Oakland Athletics in April 2019.)  The Oakland City Council has scheduled a tentative July 20 vote on whether or not to approve the AASEG's term sheet for the city's Coliseum site stake.  (Coincidentally, July 20 is also when the council intends to vote on a term sheet for the Athletics' proposed Howard Terminal ballpark.)  A "yes" vote on the AASEG's term sheet would allow that company to start to negotiate with the Oakland city government on a deal to buy the city's half of the site.

 

https://www.sfchronicle.com/local-politics/article/A-s-surprised-that-Oakland-may-consider-16242444.php

 

Among the AASEG's long-term goals is ownership of an NFL team that would not only play in Oakland at a new stadium within the Coliseum campus, but also be that league's first franchise with majority Black ownership.

 

https://www.aasegoakland.com/nfl-team

 

https://www.aasegoakland.com/stadium

 

For now, the NFL has not gone public with any plan for further expansion (let alone within the United States).  However, almost a year ago at this time, the AASEG went ahead and supplied the league with a letter of intent to file a formal application for a new franchise.

 

https://www.aasegoakland.com/our-letter-to-the-nfl

 

https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/NFL-Oakland-team-community-stadium-plan-Goodell-15354429.php

 

Since it is likely that the AASEG could buy an existing NFL club and then at least try to move that team to Oakland, I gave serious thought to posting all of this in the NFL "Relocation Roundelay" thread.  Also, given the impact that the AASEG's quest could have on the Oakland Athletics' goal of full ownership of the Coliseum complex (even though the A's want to have a new ballpark away from that swath of land as soon as possible) or even the A's ownership's dream of a Howard Terminal development (which is intended to be funded partially by redevelopment of a 100%-A's-owned Coliseum site), this post might be a good fit also for the A's "Wheel of Relocation" thread.  However, I decided ultimately that all of this information is unique enough and complex enough to deserve its own thread.

[Red Comet]

Honestly? I wish them luck. If they can get the capital themselves, why should they not try an get an expansion team? There's just a minor problem.

 

Where are the other 3 cities that would be interested? I suppose I could add San Diego and St Louis (and they need new stadiums too, obviously) to the list but screw it, I'll add London to finish it off. Expand from 32 to 36 and you could get 3 divisions per conference with 6 teams. I wonder how that would work so I'll start off with the AFC West which is where I'm 100% sure this new Oakland team would play. 

 

AFC

 

Spoiler

AFC West

Kansas City Chiefs

Oakland Expansion

San Diego Expansion

Denver Broncos

Los Angeles Chargers

Las Vegas Raiders

 

AFC Central

Pittsburgh Steelers

Houston Texans

Tennessee Titans

Baltimore Ravens

Cleveland Browns

Cincinnati Bengals

 

AFC East

New England Patriots

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

Buffalo Bills

New York Jets

Miami Dolphins

 

 

NFC

Spoiler

NFC West

Los Angeles Rams

Seattle Seahawks

Arizona Cardinals

San Francisco 49ers

St Louis Expansion

New Orleans Saints

 

NFC Central

Minnesota Vikings

Chicago Bears

Green Bay Packers

Detroit Lions

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Carolina Panthers

 

NFC East

Dallas Cowboys

New York Giants

Washington Football Team

Philadelphia Eagles

Atlanta Falcons

London Expansion

 

Not perfect at all, but screw it, that's the way I see an Oakland team rejoining the NFL. 

[dont care]

There is absolutely no way they are getting an expansion team. The NFL isn’t going to add just 1 team. It would have to be 2 and probably 4 and there are no plans to do that especially in the current circumstances. They would have to buy a current team but then they run into the problem of finding an owner wishing to sell, and have them not write into agreements that the team has to stay in the current city for “x” years. I wish them the best but going after the NFL is just not feasible, maybe trying to bring an NBA team back to Oakland is more feasible but has its own problems.

[Walk-Off]

On 6/13/2021 at 8:34 PM, Red Comet said:

If they can get the capital themselves, why should they not try an get an expansion team? There's just a minor problem.

 

Where are the other 3 cities that would be interested? I suppose I could add San Diego and St Louis (and they need new stadiums too, obviously) to the list but screw it, I'll add London to finish it off. Expand from 32 to 36 and you could get 3 divisions per conference with 6 teams.

 

On 6/13/2021 at 8:51 PM, dont care said:

There is absolutely no way they are getting an expansion team. The NFL isn’t going to add just 1 team. It would have to be 2 and probably 4 and there are no plans to do that especially in the current circumstances. They would have to buy a current team but then they run into the problem of finding an owner wishing to sell, and have them not write into agreements that the team has to stay in the current city for “x” years. I wish them the best but going after the NFL is just not feasible, maybe trying to bring an NBA team back to Oakland is more feasible but has its own problems.

 

I agree wholeheartedly that the most sensible NFL expansion beyond 32 teams would be to 36 clubs, with a reversion to three divisions per conference.  Personally, I think that a good choice for a fourth new NFL team to accompany replacement franchises in Oakland, St. Louis, and San Diego could very well be a club based in San Antonio (at least if the Alamodome can be kept up to date and the Dallas Cowboys and especially the Houston Texans can be swayed into letting a third area in Texas have an NFL team), but that is a subject for another thread.

 

As for the AASEG's sports-related ambitions, while that group is not currently seeking to bring a new NBA team to Oakland, the organization is now trying to attain not only a new NFL team for Oakland, but also a WNBA franchise that would play at what is known presently as the Oakland Arena.

 

https://www.aasegoakland.com/news-1

 

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2021/06/14/an-oakland-wnba-team-its-in-one-groups-plans-for-the-coliseum-site/

 

http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2021/06/15/17525/oakland-schedules-vote-on-selling-half-of-coliseum-site-to-not-the-as-for-same-day-as-vote-on-as-stadium/

[MJWalker45]

17 minutes ago, Walk-Off said:

I agree wholeheartedly that the most sensible NFL expansion beyond 32 teams would be to 36 clubs, with a reversion to three divisions per conference.  Personally, I think that a good choice for a fourth new NFL team to accompany replacement franchises in Oakland, St. Louis, and San Diego could very well be a club based in San Antonio (at least if the Alamodome can be kept up to date and the Dallas Cowboys and especially the Houston Texans can be swayed into letting a third area in Texas have an NFL team), but that is a subject for another thread.

 

The Alamodome has just been updated within the last 5 years, so it could be a good temporary home while a permanent building gets built. The big issue is the lack of those big corporate suites that didn't start getting added to newer stadiums in the 1990's until they started construction. If they built a new stadium as needed, it would be outside of downtown because they would have to do too much to clear area inside I-37. 

[GDAWG]

57 minutes ago, Walk-Off said:

 

 

I agree wholeheartedly that the most sensible NFL expansion beyond 32 teams would be to 36 clubs, with a reversion to three divisions per conference.  Personally, I think that a good choice for a fourth new NFL team to accompany replacement franchises in Oakland, St. Louis, and San Diego could very well be a club based in San Antonio (at least if the Alamodome can be kept up to date and the Dallas Cowboys and especially the Houston Texans can be swayed into letting a third area in Texas have an NFL team), but that is a subject for another thread.

 

As for the AASEG's sports-related ambitions, while that group is not currently seeking to bring a new NBA team to Oakland, the organization is now trying to attain not only a new NFL team for Oakland, but also a WNBA franchise that would play at what is known presently as the Oakland Arena.

 

https://www.aasegoakland.com/news-1

 

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2021/06/14/an-oakland-wnba-team-its-in-one-groups-plans-for-the-coliseum-site/

 

http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2021/06/15/17525/oakland-schedules-vote-on-selling-half-of-coliseum-site-to-not-the-as-for-same-day-as-vote-on-as-stadium/

 

The WNBA has said that they would consider expansion after this season.  At most they will get 2 but if there's enough interest, perhaps 4 teams.  The league's last two expansions were in 2006 (Chicago) and 2008 (Atlanta) and there have been calls for expansion for years now as they only have 12 teams and not enough roster spots to go around. 

[dont care]

I just don’t see a team coming to Oakland in the foreseeable future. Does this organization have 2+ billion dollars to buy a team, plus another 1/2 billion for the relocation fee. And this all assuming they can find an owner who wishes to sell. There are just too many hurdles in the current environment to make it happen.

[B-Rich]

The idea of a group or consortium buying a franchise is a non-starter in the NFL.  Although their own bylaws now allow for plurality owners to own as little as 30% with no more than 24 (non-related, non-family) partners, you know how many have that low of percentage?

 

NONE.

 

You know how many have less than a 50% majority?

 

NONE.

 

You know how many teams have owners (individuals or related families) who don't own their team OUTRIGHT?

 

FIVE. And one of those is of course grandfathered-in Green Bay.

 

Unless one member of this group has the cheese to tote over 50% of a multibillion investment, not going to happen. 

 

NFL likes a "face"  or ("family faces") to go with their franchises; always have, always will.

[The_Admiral]

The league will approve a sale to Blackrock before black guys

[sky1324]

14 minutes ago, B-Rich said:

The idea of a group or consortium buying a franchise is a non-starter in the NFL.  Although their own bylaws now allow for plurality owners to own as little as 30% with no more than 24 (non-related, non-family) partners, you know how many have that low of percentage?

 

NONE.

 

You know how many have less than a 50% majority?

 

NONE.

 

You know how many teams have owners (individuals or related families) who don't own their team OUTRIGHT?

 

FIVE. And one of those is of course grandfathered-in Green Bay.

 

Unless one member of this group has the cheese to tote over 50% of a multibillion investment, not going to happen. 

 

NFL likes a "face"  or ("family faces") to go with their franchises; always have, always will.

While this is entirely true today, I believe Jerry Richardson owned about 40% of the Panthers - still enough for a majority, but not 50%, at least, back when he still owned the team.

[tigers]

If Oakland gets a team then why not Hawaii?

 

 

Everyone gets a team

[GDAWG]

Mark Davis and his mother Carol control 47% of the Raiders, but it's contractually structured to give them controlling interest.

 

Raiders ownership could be a major story down the line as Davis currently has no heirs.  

[McCall]

12 hours ago, GDAWG said:

Mark Davis and his mother Carol control 47% of the Raiders, but it's contractually structured to give them controlling interest.

 

Raiders ownership could be a major story down the line as Davis currently has no heirs.  

They will have to be complete and utter failures and/or Allegiant Stadium becomes one of the biggest disasters and just comes crashing down (while empty, of course) for them to abandon Vegas at any point in the foreseeable future. Even if the team ended up for sale, unless one of those things happen, the league would not let anyone move them.

[goalieboy82]

On 6/16/2021 at 11:23 PM, GDAWG said:

Mark Davis and his mother Carol control 47% of the Raiders, but it's contractually structured to give them controlling interest.

 

Raiders ownership could be a major story down the line as Davis currently has no heirs.  

that we know of. 

anyway, i think 32 teams is the right amount of teams (while they can get the players for more teams, the number of cities that would pay for a new/upgrade stadium is not many).

[Red Comet]

39 minutes ago, goalieboy82 said:

that we know of. 

anyway, i think 32 teams is the right amount of teams (while they can get the players for more teams, the number of cities that would pay for a new/upgrade stadium is not many).

 

As a Chiefs fan, I'm probably biased, but I don't think a guy who looks like this 

Spoiler

is having any children we don't know about. 

[bosrs1]

On 6/17/2021 at 9:15 AM, McCall said:

They will have to be complete and utter failures and/or Allegiant Stadium becomes one of the biggest disasters and just comes crashing down (while empty, of course) for them to abandon Vegas at any point in the foreseeable future. Even if the team ended up for sale, unless one of those things happen, the league would not let anyone move them.

 

Well since this is the future of Las Vegas, never say never I guess.