The Oakland Raiders will officially play one more season in their longtime home. According to David DeBolt of the East Bay Times, the Coliseum Authority board has voted to approve a lease agreement that will allow the Raiders to play the 2019 season at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum before the franchise moves to Las Vegas next year.
https://twitter.com/daviddebolt/status/1106597562612482048
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, Nevada was approved by NFL owners on a 31-1 vote in March 2017. But re-location won’t come until 2020, and the Raiders’ lease at the Coliseum expired after last season, initially leaving them without a place to play home game games in 2019.
Reports surfaced in January that Raiders owner Mark Davis was contemplating a move across the Bay to San Francisco for the 2019 season, sharing Oracle Park with the MLB's San Francisco Giants. Mayor London Breed of San Francisco staunchly pushed back on that idea, though, alluding to existing congestion in the city's South Beach neighborhood and the overwhelming local public sentiment that the Raiders “should stay in Oakland.”
The Raiders beat the rival Denver Broncos 24-17 in their home finale last season, an event treated by fans as more a celebration of the organization's decades in Oakland coming to an end as than another run-of-the-mill home game for a team already eliminated from the playoffs.
The team has already significant upped anticipation for the 2019 season, trading third and fifth-round picks to the Pittsburgh Steelers earlier this week in exchange for superstar wide receiver Antonio Brown. The Raiders, 4-12 a year ago, also have a league-high three first-round picks in the upcoming NFL draft.
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