The Oakland (then Los Angeles then back to Oakland and now Las Vegas) Raiders tenure at the decrepit Oakland Alameda County Coliseum dates back to 1966 and, by all accounts, the stadium has not aged well. The Athletics baseball team - arguably MLB's weakest franchise at the moment - still calls it home (and plays most of its games before crowds of well below 10,000) but the Raiders, who have actually moved away from it twice, departed for good before the 2020 season. Overseeing the move to Las Vegas was the team's current "owner" Mark Davis. The only child of Al and Carol Davis, Mark assumed the de facto role of owner upon his father's death in 2011 when the team was left to his mother and him. Together, they own 47% of the team but under its governing partnership agreement, they hold a controlling interest. For having permanently moved the team away from Oakland, Mark Davis probably isn't the most popular personality in the Bay area or among certain traditional elements of Raiders Nation (which has a large membership across the US and beyond).
Al Davis was one of the NFL's most colourful and controversial personalities. He is the only person in NFL history to serve as scout, head coach, general manager, league commissioner (for the AFL) and team owner. He was known as a very litigious yet highly principled man who, among his many notable actions as Raiders owner, sued the NFL in 1980 for not allowing him to move the team to Los Angeles (he succeeded in doing this two years later) and in the 1960s, he forbid his team from travelling to cities where black and white players would be required to stay in separate hotels. He hired the league's first black head coach (Art Shell) and its first Latino head coach (Tom Flores). The Raiders also became the dumping ground for some of the NFL's least savoury players (in terms of criminal records etc) and, partly in response to criticism for this, he coined the phrase "Just Win Baby". Son Mark, with his signature "bowl" haircut has followed in his father's social justice footsteps by being the first NFL owner to speak out against domestic violence in response to some of the more infamous incidents involving NFL players and when NFL owners voted to require players to either stand for the national anthem or remain in the locker room until after the anthem, the Raiders were the only one of the league's 32 teams not to vote in favour of the measure (they abstained).
As the player warm-ups wrapped up yesterday at a mostly sun-drenched Rich Stadium, from our seats at the 45 yard line, we noticed a heavy security presence making its way up the aisle beside our section. Two Erie County Sheriff's officers and at least four very large suit-attired men were escorting Mark Davis up the aisle from field level behind the Raiders bench to his private box just above our section. It wasn't clear at first what the security was for but I recognized the bowl haircut and then Davis's rather unique face below it. If any disgruntled member of Raider Nation (or perhaps anti Colin Kaepernick hammerheads) wanted to get at Mr. Davis, they were certainly not going to be successful yesterday. Despite his feeling secure in the stadium as I am sure he did, Mr. Davis probably didn't enjoy the game very much.
The Bills treated their fans to a blowout win in the home opener but the game did not start well as they allowed the Raiders an easy touchdown on their first possession and then went three-and-out on their first offensive drive. But Terrel Bernard got his hands on a tipped Jimmy Garoppolo pass on the next series and Bills tied the game shortly afterward and never looked back. Josh Allen silenced the naysayers with a tidy three touchdown day with no turnovers. A very conservative offensive game plan seemed to be the perfect remedy for his wild turnover-filled Monday night in week one. James Cook looked dangerous all day and racked up 123 yards on 17 carries. The Raiders Josh Jacobs, the league's leading rusher a season ago, was held to minus two yards on nine carries. A comfortable fourth quarter lead also allowed us to leave with a few minutes left, beat the stadium traffic and enjoy a smooth trip through the border and home as we listened to Mike Schopp and the Bulldog take post-game calls.
Occupying the seats just to the left of mine is a father/son tandem who attend every game The father, in his early 80s, has been a season ticket holder for 50 years. The son, who has a clear resemblance to Metallica frontman James Hetfield, is a US Postal Service worker. They are dedicated "salt-of-the-earth" fans, life-long Buffalo residents and the kind of folks who make Bills Nation one of the best fan bases in the NFL. During the many television breaks yesterday, Mr. Hetfield and I discussed the new stadium under construction across the road and we commiserated about the lack of information from the team about timelines, seat selection and the likely cost of the personal seat licences (PSLs) which will be required to maintain seats in the best sections of the new stadium (if not the entire stadium). The most recent speculation I have seen is that for seats in our section, the PSL cost will likely be somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000 USD per seat (a one-time cost). Mr. Hetfield and his dad have determined that their budget could handle a cost of only about $5,000 or perhaps a bit more and they are very concerned that they will be priced out of their seats and will see their five decade long tradition come to an end in a couple of years. I have no idea what I will do once we know the cost of the these PSLs but if fans like Mr. Hetfield and his dad are shut out of the Bills new stadium for financial reasons, this would be quite sad for them and probably for many other fans in similar positions.
Next up for the Bills is a trip to Washington to play the Commanders. They had better be careful not to look ahead to the looming week four game in Orchard Park against the now 2-0 Miami Dolphins.
No comments:
Post a Comment