2. Northern California was never viable for the Raiders
As with the socioeconomic conditions we covered before, there have always been logistical concerns about the Raiders remaining in Northern California — the East Bay in particular.
Once the San Francisco 49ers erected Levi’s Stadium in the heart of the Silicon Valley, it became nearly impossible for the Raiders to find another option in Northern California outside of Oakland itself.
When it came to a potential new venue in Oakland, that also seemed to be off the table. Former Raiders president Amy Trask actually covered this once Levi’s opened for business.
“I believe that the site of the Oakland Coliseum is an absolutely stupendous site for a sports facility. It’s a marvelous, marvelous site, Trask said back in February of 2015. “But man, it is only 32 miles from Santa Clara. That’s a lot of infrastructure in a very, very small region.”
The idea of two NFL venues within the same geographical location in Northern California just didn’t make sense. Remember, there’s a reason why Oakland Colisuem and Qualcomm are the two oldest stadiums in the NFL. Both exist in a state of California, where political red tape itself is absolutely horrendous.
It took the backing of Silicon Valley coffers to get that venue erected in Santa Clara. As it relates to the Inglewood location where both the Chargers and Rams will be playing, it took 20-plus years of no NFL football in the nation’s second-largest sports media market for that project to go through.
What were the Raiders’ options in Northern California? They couldn’t move further towards the heart of Silicon Valley. That was never a viable option. Traffic concerns were also big issues as it relates to any move north, such as the Raiders’ training camp facility in Napa. It just became too much of a headache to find potential cities that could house a team, especially after the idea of the Raiders joining forces with the 49ers at Levi’s was thrown out the window.