Oakland Raiders absent at Floyd Kephart’s Coliseum City event
By Chase Ruttig
For the past several months, Floyd Kephart has been the man tasked with the hopes of those who want the Oakland Raiders to stay in their hometown and birthplace in the face of the threat of a second relocation to Los Angeles in franchise history. The investor in charge of the Coliseum City vision being the lone man with any sort of plan or proposal in place to potentially save the Raiders with a new stadium putting Kephart’s name in the headlines on a weekly basis as fans have long hoped he can get the ball rolling on a new venue to house the team in Oakland.
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However the problem with Kephart’s vision is that it is drawing little actual interest from the Raiders themselves as with a need for tons of private money with Mayor Libby Schaaf adamant no taxpayer funds will be used, owner Mark Davis is not exactly on board with the Coliseum City project. Davis never appearing to be moved about a partnership with Kephart as the Coliseum City project has appeared more and more unlikely to become a reality over the ten months that Kephart has been proposing the deal to the Oakland city officials as well as investors.
In fact, none of the three Oakland major pro sports franchises attended Kephart’s last ditch breakfast event to try and rally around the Coliseum City project to save at the very least the Raiders and the A’s. Kephart’s plan to change some of the negative coverage about the chances of him pulling off a new stadium with private money only backfiring on him as one of the main headlines on Tuesday was about the absences of Mark Davis and Lew Wolff (A’s) from an event that is supposed to be about keeping the teams that they own in Oakland through Kephart’s projects.
Raiders did not attend. City has never showed them anything Kephart has proposed. https://t.co/WkvzogRz1b
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) August 25, 2015
Yes, if not for that thorny fact that the Raiders, city, county and A's aren't on board and time is almost expired. https://t.co/liJsZUzqP4
— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) August 25, 2015
It appears that Kephart’s time in the spotlight as a major player in the neverendng Oakland stadium drama is nearing its end, after all none of the parties involved seem to be interested in doing business with him and for good reason. The sense is that Kephart couldn’t deliver and that the Coliseum City plan was never going to get off the ground. Now that it is happening and the Raiders along with the city aren’t interested in Kephart the next question is if it means the death of the NFL in Oakland entirely.
Needing a better plan than the one Kephart was offering, it is looking like Davis’ best chances of a new stadium lie elsewhere unless a last hour savor comes through for fans in Oakland who still are hoping that despite Kephart’s failures with Coliseum City that a new stadium will eventually come. Right now it appears unlikely that will happen as with Kephart continuing to fail at saving the franchise in Oakland, the next great hope for keeping the team and avoiding relocation is likely to face the same issues that have caused the collapse of Coliseum City. A sad reality that is making it look even more likely that the NFL is dying in Oakland.