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It's officially official: The Oakland Raiders will play one more season at their longtime home after all. At the NFL owners meeting in Phoenix on Monday, the league formally voted to approve the Raiders' single-season lease agreement at the Oakland Coliseum, delaying their move from the East Bay until 2020.
The team's efforts to play the 2019 season at the Coliseum have been in the works for months. On March 15, the Coliseum Authority voted to approve the Raiders' lease, cementing their status in Oakland for next season and leaving Monday's vote by owners as a mere formality.
Reports surfaced in early February that the Raiders had entered into negotiations with the Coliseum Authority to play games at the stadium next season. Coliseum representative Scott McKibbon even told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he was “cautiously optimistic a deal will get done.”
The franchise’s forthcoming move to Las Vegas, NV was approved by NFL owners on a 31-1 vote in March 2017. But relocation won’t come until 2020, and the lease at the Coliseum expired after last season, initially leaving Oakland without a place to play home game games in 2019.
In January, reports began surfacing that owner Mark Davis and company were considering a temporary move across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco, where they would share Oracle Park with the MLB’s San Francisco Giants. London Breed, San Francisco's mayor, vehemently opposed that idea, alluding to existing congestion in the city’s South Beach neighborhood as one of the reasons why she believes the Raiders “should play in Oakland.”
The Raiders beat the rival Denver Broncos 24-17 in their home finale last season, an event treated by fans as a raucous celebration of the team's decades in Oakland.
