Oakland Raiders fans (shoutout Devin) may not want to read this article, but it bears mentioning that the city of Portland is looking to add an NFL team to its roster of paltry pro offerings (they’re basically the biggest city to have only one major pro team) and the Raiders are getting tired of sharing a stadium with a baseball team. The possibility of the Raiders moving out of Oakland and into Portland is real.
First, look at it from the Raiders’ perspective. They may have some of the most passionate (read: insane) fans in sports, but they are also the only NFL team to play football on a baseball field. Last week, Raiders owner Mark Davis said that Oakland has only one more chance to develop a new stadium for the Raiders before he explores new cities. From CBSSports:
The Raiders lease at O.co Coliseum actually expired after the 2013 season and the team could’ve looked at moving to another city, but Davis and the Raiders agreed to a one-year extension to stay in Oakland. Davis made the agreement with hopes of seeing the stadium project move forward in 2014…
“They brought in Colony Capital and based on that, I decided to go ahead and do a one-year extension with them. But there’s been no progress,” Davis said. “I had high hopes when Colony Capital came in. I still do have hopes, but they’re not as high because I haven’t really heard anything positive from either group. It’s gone silent again. We have to get something done.”
Meanwhile, it’s never made much sense that Portland doesn’t have another another big pro team besides the Trail Blazers. Look at how they stack up, business-wise, among other cities that do have NFL teams:
Portland is a bigger TV market than Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Indy, Baltimore, San Diego, Nashville, KC, Milwaukee, Cincy, NOLA, Jax, Buffalo.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) March 5, 2014
Plus, Emory Sports Marketing Analytics ranked Portland the number one small market metropolis with just one sports franchise in the four major professional leagues. People there like sports. There’s a Change.org petition aimed at Oregon governor John Kitzhaber, asking him to bring a team to Portland — and while it doesn’t have to be the Raiders, based on what we saw in the above paragraphs, it could be a perfect match.
Now, would there be a culture clash if the Raiders, known primarily for being dirty as fuck (in a good way, sort of) and powered by Raider Nation, moved to a city best known for being a hipster haven? Sure, there are people in Portland who don’t ride fixies, don’t exclusively drink PBR, don’t want to put a bird on everything, don’t listen to vinyl just because, don’t wear overalls and flannel and thigh high black socks, don’t use typewriters to conduct serious business, etc., etc. But those people can still go to Timbers games and cheer, because no one likes soccer. Will the crowds be there in force for an already established brand like the Raiders the same way the Black Hole does?
Short answer: Probably.
We won’t know anything definitive about the state of the Raiders until the end of the 2014 season, so any move is still a long ways away. But Raiders fans need to start planning to commute up to Portland every Sunday, or to become 49ers fans. Raider Nation loves the Niners, right?
Photo via Getty