As the Raiders try to solve a stadium situation that currently has no clear answer in the Bay Area, a former Raider who never played in Oakland has a preferred outcome.
Move back to Southern California.
“I’d rather see -- I know people in Oakland won’t like this -- the team back in Los Angeles,” Hall of Famer Marcus Allen told NBCSN at the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship in Lake Tahoe. “I think it’s a viable option. . . .We can’t have them back at the [L.A.] Coliseum, the Coliseum now is USC’s home. . . . But there’s some locations there that I know I’ve talked to a few owners [about] and I know that they’ve liked. I can’t divulge my sources though.”
Allen wasn’t bashful about divulging his opinion that the time has come to leave Oakland, again.
“I just think it’s ripe right now, being the second largest market and being the entertainment capital of the world it’s almost necessary to have a team there,” Allen said. “And I think with the corporate support and the brand that has already been there, that’s been established, that has a huge following, I think it’d be a no-brainer.”
Allen also believes it’s a no-brainer that the Raiders should avoid sharing the 49ers’ new stadium, even though Commissioner Roger Goodell would like them to do it.
“That’s not the Raiders,” Allen said. “The Raiders don’t share things. . . . I don’t think Al [Davis] would like it, I can say that right now. He wouldn’t be happy at all because to him it’s the Raiders and 31 other teams.”
Of course, the may end up sharing a stadium in Los Angeles. But it would be an easier pill for the Raiders to align with a team like the Rams than their long-time rivals from San Francisco who will play in Santa Clara.
