Raiders to hold 2020 training camp in Northern California

The Oakland Raiders are entering their final season in Northern California before their highly-anticipated move to Las Vegas.

It’s going to be an interesting final season in Oakland for the long-downtrodden organization.

Interestingly enough, the team’s actual relocation to the desert metropolis won’t take place until after training camp next year.

That report comes to us via Paul Gutierrez of ESPN and is rather shocking.

While this SHOULD be the #Raiders' final season in Oakland, they are slated to return to Napa for training camp in 2020. As it stands now, the @Raiders will have next spring's offseason training program in Alameda, training camp in Napa & THEN depart for Las Vegas grand arrival.

— Paul Gutierrez (@PGutierrezESPN) July 25, 2019

The Vegas stadium is going up at a quicker than anticipated clip. Meanwhile, the Raiders are building a practice facility mere miles from the Strip location of said stadium.

Per the Raiders’ agreement for financing of the Vegas stadium, they will have to start holding training camp in Reno starting in 2021.

Napa has long been where Oakland has set up shop for training camp. Prior to that, it was nearby Santa Rosa in the North Bay.

The optics are not going to be great here. Why hold camp in Northern California, only to relocate once preseason gets going? It’s not going to do the Raiders any favors. That’s for sure.