Post by TheShadow on Nov 4, 2005 20:20:27 GMT -5
www.insidebayarea.com
by Art Spander
OAKLAND — Peace in our time, if with an asterisk. "It's a new beginning," declared Al Davis. The great man has agreed to compromise. And now the sun rises in the west?
The Raiders doing something to help Oakland and Alameda County. Oakland and Alameda County doing something to help the Raiders. Historic.
The lion may not never lie down with the lamb, but Al Davis and Raiders chief executive Amy Trask sat down Wednesday with Ignacio de La Fuente of the city council and Gail Steele of the board of supervisors.
As unlikely a foursome as could be considered.
Coming up with as unlikely an announcement as could be imagined.
No more PSLs. No more surcharges. No more Oakland Football Marketing Association. No more bickering. And, because that lawsuit remains up in Sacramento, only one more bit of
litigation. A dtente two years in the making. Al gave Amy credit. Amy gave de la Fuente and Steele credit.
Those 10 years of confrontation, of blame, of sniping, now at an end, although still a few reminders from Al of who's in charge, a few little jabs, because, hey, Al is Al, and we love him for it, right?
"A proposal we can all live with, certainly for the next five years, and be positive about it," said Al of the agreement.
Five years is when the Raiders' lease at the Coliseum is up, meaning they could stray as Davis reminded us, saying, "A lot of communities are just waiting for someone to raise their hand and say we're interested."
Which Al may be, or perhaps may be saying just to keep the rest of us interested.
But through 2010, the Raiders are here and will be selling their own tickets, and if you own a PSL, you'll get priority in buying those tickets from the Raiders.
"Every time we handled tickets in Oakland, before we came back, we were always sold out," Davis said. "And when we came back, we thought we were sold out.
"But now the past is past, and we have five years to do enough to see if we can make the Raiders viable economically, so we can compete with other teams in our league."
Al doesn't like these public viewings. However, he was persuaded to put his imprimatur on the proceedings. Davis wasn't exactly apologizing for the decade of mistakes, but it was an acknowledgment that maybe things could have been done better by both sides, surely a change of great proportion.
Al Davis remains delightfully sharp. His ideas about the vertical offense notwithstanding. Then again, the Raiders have won a couple in a row. And here we're dealing less with going deep than going into Al's observations, ranging from informative to entertaining.
The Raiders, as we've been told in the past, are 29th or 30th in revenues among the 32 NFL teams, grossing maybe $70 million a year less than Denver, $100 million less than the Washington Redskins.
"We want to bring championships back to Oakland," said Al, "We want our players to succeed. We want our fans to be happy ... "
The ringing of a cell phone interrupted him for only a moment, when he responded, "It's one of our fans calling."
Yes, it's all about money, but what isn't? Oakland and Alameda County may have invested millions in the Coliseum complex, starting back in the early 1960s, but, Al implied, what would the city and region be without the Athletics or Warriors or Raiders?
"I say to you," Davis said to us, "that we came back because it helped the baseball team stay. It helped the Warriors stay. And it helped a lot of newspapers. I know one newspaper for sure that was near the end, because we were asked to buy it."
He could have been assured decent Raiders coverage if nothing else.
"You got to think of the quality of life that we bring to the community," said Al. "That the baseball team brings to the community. That the basketball team brings. I think Oakland-Alameda County ought to be proud to keep that quality of life."
Asked if he regretted returning from Los Angeles in 1995, Davis, said, "I want to dominate. I want to win. I regret what happened, not that I came back. And I also regret we're not in the Super Bowl every year."
A new beginning. An old concept.