Post by TheShadow on Aug 9, 2005 3:33:14 GMT -5
www.insidebayarea.com/
By Jerry McDonald, STAFF WRITER
Rookie linebacker Kirk Morrison, born and raised in Oakland, brushes aside the talk of Personal Seat Licenses, revenue streams, television blackouts and feuding with the local governments in favor of pure Raiders nostalgia.
"All I know is Silver and Black belongs in Oakland," Morrison said.
Guard Langston Walker, also an Oakland native, believes the Raiders are in their rightful place.
"With a lot of teams, their home cities make up their aura," Walker said. "You think of Oakland, you think of a gritty, hard-working town, with a lot of blue-collar people — the stepchild to San Francisco. I think that describes our image."
Ten years after Al Davis signed the agreement returning the Raiders from Los Angeles to Oakland, nostalgia and aura have not paid the bills.
The club's lease says it will remain in Oakland through 2010, and the future is unclear.
Oakland's local fan base has a deserved reputation for being rabid and raucous, but the team has yet to produce the sellouts Davis said he was promised.
Only 24 of 80 regular-season games have sold out before the NFL's weekly deadline for televising games at home.
The Raiders, 9-23 the last two seasons, have had just four of their last 16 games at McAfee Coliseum televised locally.
Robert Jenkins, a Walnut Creek-based real estate broker who played for the Raiders in Los Angeles and Oakland, wonders about the long-term future of the franchise.
"The Raiders are where they belong — right now," Jenkins said. "The Raiders are an icon in the area, but if I were a businessman and promises were made at the outset that weren't kept, I'd use whatever recourse was at my disposal, and that's kind of where we are right now."
Morrison and Walker, then Oakland teens, remember the excitement of the team's return. Morrison said it was the talk of his youth football team, and Walker recalls it being a big topic of conversation while training with his team at Bishop O'Dowd High.
Vince Evans, a backup quarterback with the Raiders from 1987-95, was overwhelmed bythe fan reaction.
"It was like the prodigal son had come home, and they just welcomed us with open arms," Evans said. "It was just electric."
While even Davis conceded the franchise was losing value with the move, it was hoped Oakland would give the Raiders a competitive advantage.
"We were coming to a football city, where we came from, and it was a place that didn't have all the distractions that exist with Los Angeles," said Tim Brown, the recently retired Raiders star wide receiver.
Instead, distractions came in the form of problems between the Raiders and the city and county. PSL sales lagged, the string of sellouts never materialized.
"Until all the differences are addressed, it will be consistent bickering and somebody blaming somebody for something," Jenkins said. "The problem is, nobody is offering any constructive solutions to get anything done, at least not publicly."
Chester McGlockton, a defensive tackle with the Raiders from 1992-97, believes much of the fan base was simply priced out of the market. PSL's ranged from $250 to $4,000, with ticket priced at $41, $51 and $61.
"The fans are absolutely phenomenal. If you played for the Raiders, you knew the town was behind you," McGlockton said. "But I told people when we first got there the tickets are too expensive. They were ripping people off. I was embarrassed."
David Carter, a sports marketing consultant based in Los Angeles who is working on behalf of Anaheim to prepare an NFL bid, sees Davis as the common thread.
"It comes down to ownership style. How well run is the organization? How well does it connect to the community?" Carter said. "When you look at the tactics of the Oakland-to-Los Angeles-to-Oakland Raiders, they've never been able to endear themselves in that fashion. In terms of doing business, they gain no traction."
Davis, when approached Saturday to discuss the anniversary of the team's return to Oakland, declined to comment.
Brown refuses to lay all the blame at the feet of Davis, but doesn't absolve him, either.
"If there weren't promises, then there were definitely some huge misunderstandings between the local governments and Mr. Davis," Brown said. "It's sad because this should be a great situation. Based on the dealings they had with him (when he left Oakland), I don't think anyone should be surprised. Al is always going to be Al. Half of this is probably his fault and half is the other people's fault."
Retired Los Angeles Herald Examiner columnist Melvin Durslag, a Davis supporter over the years, believes Davis' tunnel vision with regard to football can hurt the organization when the team isn't playing well.
"Al doesn't want to believe it, but he's a bust at public relations," Durslag said. "They always make more people angry per capita than any other team."
Durslag wonders if Oakland's string of sellouts from 1969 through 1979 might have been more a function of their record (112-39-7) than of a die-hard fan base.
"It might be deceptive," Durslag said. "They were winning every year."
Retired tackle Lincoln Kennedy maintains the Raiders are in the right place and will eventually work things out.
"People identify the Raiders in Oakland," Kennedy said. "That's where they belong."
