A Power Play the Raiders Cannot Lose

Just about a year ago, the Dallas Cowboys were sold to oil tycoon Jerry Jones for $146 million. It was the highest figure ever paid for a professional sports team. In exchange for his dollars, tycoon Jones got America’s Team plus the 65,000-seat Texas Stadium plus the training camp.

There was, as always, debate over such a price. It was said that no football team would pencil out at $146 million. It was suggested that Jones’ psychic reward from owning the team must be very great because the financial rewards were likely to be meager.

I mention the Cowboys deal and that debate because it now serves as a contrast--or maybe a benchmark--to the bidding frenzy surrounding the so-called Los Angeles Raiders. The bidders come from three California cities, and two of them have put offers on the table that dwarf the Cowboys deal.

What’s intriguing about the frenzy is that none of the bidders are trying to buy the Raiders. This flood of dollars is aimed simply at getting Al Davis and his team to show up in a particular town and call it home. Never has so much been offered for so little, to wit:

In Sacramento, developer Gregg Lukenbill and his group have promised, for starters, to build the team a $100-million stadium. The group would guarantee the Raiders $90 million from ticket sales over the first five years, and $105 million from luxury boxes and other ancillaries over 20 years. Just to meet these payments, Lukenbill would have to see sellouts at virtually every Raider game for the next two decades.

But that’s not all. The Raiders would get a cut from any other event held at the stadium, including 22.5% of any future baseball revenues. And finally, the city and county of Sacramento would hand over a $50-million, up-front “franchise fee” to Davis for being so good as to take the rest of the money.

The city of Oakland, long bereft of its former team, has offered the fanaticism of real Raiders fans plus some sweeteners. Namely, $65 million to build luxury boxes at the Oakland Coliseum, $22 million in guaranteed tickets sales and a $32-million franchise fee.

Los Angeles once seemed content to lose the Raiders to now-humiliated Irwindale. But last week the L.A. Coliseum managers apparently decided what the hell, they could give away money as fast as Oakland and Sacramento. They offered to tear down the Coliseum, build a new one for $125 million and give Davis $60 million over 10 years if he’ll say he loves L.A. As if that wasn’t enough, they reportedly raised the bid this week to $140 million for the stadium and $76 million in cash.

Keep in mind, the L.A. bid falls into a slightly different category from the others. Davis is being offered those millions not to move the team, but to keep it exactly where it is now. In other words, nothing is being asked of the Raiders except to say yes.

When the final deal is made, Davis will still own the Raiders, and the winning city, along with its entrepreneurs, will get to take all the financial risks. The situation is so skewed in favor of the Raiders’ owner, so close to the outrageous, that Davis-bashing on a serious scale has already begun.

Let me suggest that forces other than Davis’ dark machinations may also be at work here. There are reasons, I think, why California just happens to be the spot where this phenomenon has boiled over, and why we may see more of this in the future, not less.

It has to do, in part, with the boom here in California, and with a state in flux. We have grown rich in ways that other regions of the country have not. Sometimes you have to leave California to see the contrast. There’s big money now not only in L.A. and Orange County but in once-sleepy towns like Sacramento.

And when new money comes of age, it needs to make itself felt. New money likes to take things from old money. Notice that the biggest, fattest offer of all comes from Sacramento. In part that’s because Lukenbill and his crowd stand to make millions from the development of nearby real estate if the Raiders go there. It is also because the issue is more sharply felt in Sacramento, which has long resented its position as the stepchild of the Bay Area and now believes that its day is coming.

So, in part, Davis has been the beneficiary of a change taking place in California. Some cities are in the ascendant while others decline, and the movement of sports teams, to some degree, reflects that change.

As for the future, it is likely to bring more reshuffling. The San Francisco Giants, the San Diego Padres, the Los Angeles Clippers all are itchy to move, all looking for money from the richest suitors. Where they land will help show us the new map of power in California.