Oakland Raiders Meet With Coliseum JPA On New Stadium Late April; What Mark Davis Didn't Tell Fans

Oakland Raiders Meet With Coliseum JPA On New Stadium Late April; What Mark Davis Didn't Tell Fans In this saga of a number of people and parties working to keep the Oakland Raiders in, well, Oakland, a narrative has grown that says the stadium development process is entirely up to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. Indeed, the number one person who's driven that idea home to much of the media is Oakland Raiders Owner Mark Davis. In Boca Raton, Mr. Davis told a group of reporters (who failed to apply critical thinking to his statements) that “nothing was happening in Oakland” regarding the Mayor and the Stadium process, and in effect throwing Mayor Schaaf under the bus in Florida, where it was technically safe to do so. I wasn't there and there was no other media type present willing to challenge his statements. But the fact is, Mr. Davis, Mark is not telling you all of the truth. I'm not saying he's lying, because, as Mr. Spock said on Star Trek: “It is not a lie to keep the truth to yourself.” Obviously, Mark Davis is as much a Star Trek fan as I am, because what he left out of his Boca Raton talk was the other truth, which is that nothing was happening in Oakland because the Raiders not only weren't making moves to build a stadium, they were involved in stadium lease negotiations and waiting for Larry McNeil to start work as their stadium consultant on April 1st – no fooling. Who's Larry McNeil? He's the San Francisco 49ers former Chief Financial Officer and Stadium Consultant that Mark Davis announced he hired in February to work for the Raiders in the same stadium consultant capacity and to get this stadium built for the team. But what Davis knew, and did not tell the media either via press release or statement, was that McNeil doesn't start his job until April 1st. It's April 7th. That delay in McNeil getting started with the Raiders is the real number one hold up in all of this. Yes, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf could have and can still present her vision for stadiums for the Raiders and the Oakland A's and also The Golden State Warriors (since it's apparent Joe Lacob's going to go entirely grey before he gets anything done in San Francisco), but the Raiders have to do their work too, and the way things are arranged, all that will fall into McNeil's lap. Larry McNeil is the business representative the Raiders have sorely lacked, and really needed, for some time since Amy Trask resigned as the team's Chief Executive Officer. But, as I was informed by a friend, “McNeil has to get some things out of the way before a date can be arrived at and (Oakland Raiders President) Marc Badain has been waiting for him.” But, I'm told, that time will mostly likely be in late April. The attendees are expected to be McNeil, the Raiders lawyers, City of Oakland and Alameda County representatives, the head of the Coliseum JPA, and perhaps two JPA elected official representatives. Now, about Mayor Schaaf: a number of city elected officials and staffers have pointed a collective finger at Mayor Schaaf and said they are waiting for her to take the lead on the stadium issue. The two Oakland City Council Members who are on the JPA have said this, and Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan has said the Mayor needs to make Scott McKibben the City's chief negotiator, and from what I am hearing, Claudia Cappio, the City of Oakland's Assistant Administrator and current stadium point person agrees with Rebecca. All of the teams want to deal with Scott (no offense to Claudia), so Libby really should let him lead this thing. Meanwhile, the desire to have this stadium plan out and on the way toward completion is making some in Oakland restless. I interviewed a Lyft Driver who said to me, today in a video interview for Zennie62.com “The Mayor: she's not aggressive. It's like she doesn't care about the teams.” But one has to ask Mark Davis if he cares about Oakland or the Mayor? As much as the Raiders Owner says he hates how Schaaf talks to the media about the Raiders situation, he hasn't helped matters and, in effect, has become Libby's mirror image. In fairness to Mark, he didn't treat Oakland Mayor Jean Quan this way. Under Quan and Oakland City Administrator Fred Blackwell, the relationship between the Raiders and the City of Oakland was excellent. Now it's not. Perhaps Libby should hire Jean as a consultant? Ok. I can hear the screams. It was just an idea. Jean certainly has her issues, and elected office in Oakland may elude her after the Occupy Oakland problem, but she does have a good relationship with the Raiders to hang her hat on. That's not a bad thing. But if Libby can't stomach that idea, then, for God's sake, let Scott McKibben take the reins. Stay tuned.

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