49ers, Raiders Discuss Possibility Of Shared New Stadium

The biggest hurdle for any new professional sports stadium is the financing. During the economic boom of the late 90s and early ‘00s, companies, cities, counties, and states had little problem turning over huge sums of money to finance these monstrous cathedrals. However, since the economic downturn, financing stadiums has become a tricky issue. New football stadiums in Dallas and New Jersey have remained without naming rights and for California teams in particular, the state’s economic struggles means there is little to no public money available.

A potential 49ers-Raiders partnership would put both teams in a position to dramatically decrease their own stadium costs. A joint stadium might boost the cost a bit, but having double the season ticket revenue and double the luxury suite money would make a significant impact. Even more important, having double the football dates makes a potential stadium all the more attractive to sponsors, whether it be naming rights or signage in the stadium. All of these benefits make such a stadium that much easier to finance.

These discussions remain in a fairly preliminary stage. Roger Goodell is very much in favor of a shared stadium but a number of questions remain before any sort of deal could be reached. The most prominent would be the location of a stadium. The 49ers are attempting to build their stadium in Santa Clara while Al Davis has said the best site for a shared stadium would be at Oakland Coliseum location. Do they split the difference and head over to San Francisco?

The issues between Raiders fans and 49ers fans isn’t much of a problem since they’d be using the stadium on separate days. However, one would imagine 49ers ownership would at least be a little bit wary of getting in bed with Al Davis ownership given the number of lawsuits he’s filed over the years. During his time as owner, Al Davis has sued everybody from the league to the city of Oakland to the Oakland Athletics. Although this might give the 49ers pause, they do have an historical relationship dating back to when Edward Debartolo Sr. bought the team for his son. As 49ers owner Jed York pointed out:

“One of the things that I think a lot of people don’t realize about the 49ers and the Raiders is that the person who brokered the deal when my grandfather bought the team was Mr. Davis,” York said. “So it’s not like there is any bad blood. You need to look at that. When you’re talking about a billion-dollar investment, and there’s not a lot of public money in California to build these stadiums, you need to look at those things and that’s something that we’ve done.”

Once a new CBA is worked out, any future deal could take a more concrete step forward with a new G3 fund. The lockout forced 49ers pushed back their opening date in Santa Clara to 2015 because of the need for G3 money. Now that the lockout appears close to being resolved, additional steps can be taken to develop any stadium plans. The question at this point is whether those plans will involve the Raiders or not.

As developments progress, check out SB Nation Bay Area’s stadium stream for further updates. And since 49ers and Raiders fans can’t get along, Silver and Black Pride and Niners Nation will each have their own updates on the stadium situation.