The excitement in the Pacific Northwest coming from the Seahawks’ first-ever Super Bowl win has apparently caused some folks in neighboring Oregon to dream big.
According to KGW.com, a group of fans in Portland have begun a push to lure the Raiders to town.
The effort includes an “NFL to Portland” website, an @NFLtoPortland Twitter handle, and a Change.org petition directed to Gov. John Kitzhaber, asking that the state explore the possibility.
As KGW.com points out, the NFL currently has teams in 12 cities that, as TV markets go, are smaller than Portland.
The effort comes at a good time for Raiders owner Mark Davis, who recently expressed concern that Oakland isn’t doing enough to try to solve the team’s current stadium situation. After the 2014 season, the Raiders become free agents.
And while the league may not be thrilled about the possibility of the Raiders moving to Portland or anywhere, the push to bring the NFL to town represents the other side of the debate regarding the use of taxpayer dollars to fund football stadiums. If the city and/or state where a team currently resides can’t or won’t do it, another community possibly will.
That’s how St. Louis stole the Rams and Baltimore bogarted the Browns. Coincidentally (or not), every NFL team that has wanted a new stadium with public funding has gotten once since the Rams and Browns relocated in the mid-1990s.
The Raiders moved to Oakland the same year the Rams went to St. Louis, but the Raiders moved into the stadium where they’d previously played, and the building is now obsolete in many ways — including the presence of a baseball infield until the A’s season ends.
If Oakland won’t help build a new venue that has grass on the entire playing surface at all times, Oregon’s grassroots effort confirms that someone else will.