The San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders both want new stadiums. And if that means one new stadium in the Bay Area, both teams are open to that.
Officials with both teams told the San Francisco Chronicle that they have met to discuss the possibility of sharing a new stadium.
“We’ve put our teams together,” 49ers Chief Executive Jed York said. “It doesn’t mean we’re going to find the right deal that fits for both teams, but we’re certainly going to get a look at those options.”
Raiders chief executive Amy Trask said her team is open to the idea as well.
“We have said repeatedly that we have an open mind with respect to our stadium solution,” Trask said. “An open mind means an open mind as to sharing a facility with the 49ers. I say to Jed regularly that we should have not only an open mind to the sharing of the facility, but to the location of the facility which we might share. And so there are a lot of options for us to consider.”
If they do it, it actually wouldn’t be the first time the Raiders and 49ers shared a field: They both played home games at Kezar Stadium in 1960. And a shared stadium has worked well in the NFL for the Giants and Jets, who started sharing the Meadowlands in 1984 and worked together to open a new stadium last year.
It’s not clear where a new stadium would be or how it would be financed. Last year Santa Clara approved $114 million in taxpayer money for a new stadium for the 49ers, but that stadium may never be built because no one knows where the rest of the money will come from. Perhaps adding a second team to the stadium could make it financially feasible.