A group led by San Antonio’s former mayor is meeting with Raiders officials in the Bay Area on Friday in the latest effort to lure the team to Texas, according the San Antonio Express-News.
A group led by San Antonio’s former mayor is meeting with Raiders officials in the Bay Area on Friday in the latest effort to lure the team to Texas, according the San Antonio Express-News.
Henry Cisneros told the Express-News that he believes his group has a “very clear 50-50 proposition” of getting the Raiders to relocate to San Antonio.
Raiders owner Mark Davis, who could not be reached for comment on Thursday, has consistently maintained his main objective is keeping the franchise in Oakland and supports a new stadium on a current site.
Cisneros’ group reportedly will consist of San Antonio governmental and civic leaders.
Davis visited with San Antonio officials in July, but at the time said he was in San Antonio because close friend and former Raider Cliff Branch was being inducted into a local hall of fame.
“Former San Antonio mayor Henry Cisneros is a friend, and Henry suggested I take the opportunity to meet with some city officials while I was in town,” Davis told this newspaper in July. “I have nothing further to discuss on the topic.”
Cisneros is the father-in-law of former Raiders guard Brad Badger, who now works with the club in seeking corporate sponsorships.
According to a report in the Express-News, Davis in July met with Cisneros, then-mayor Julian Castro and other city officials as well as Spurs owner Peter Holt and former Vikings owner B.J. “Red” McCombs.
Since then, according to the newspaper, the Raiders deemed the Alamodome as an NFL-ready facility following a visit by two team officials to a University of Texas-San Antonio game. The paper also said the Raiders and the city shared the cost of a recent survey of fans in South and Central Texas to gauge their interest in supporting the team.
The Raiders are in the final year of their lease in Oakland. Davis’ often-stated preference is to build a new stadium on the current site, a wish complicated by a recent 10-year lease agreement by the A’s to remain in Oakland.