Lawmakers work on deal to keep Raiders in Oakland

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- The mayor of Oakland may have come up with a way to keep the Raiders in town. The council met Tuesday afternoon in a closed session.

For the last two years, Oakland has struggled to recruit a major investor for its 120 acre Coliseum City project. But for the first time, after a closed session meeting, Councilmember Larry Reed said he feels comfortable that the Raiders will have a new billion dollar stadium.

The exclusive negotiating agreement extends the talks for 90 crucial days, and names The Renaissance Companies for its major investor. The company's CEO Floyd Kephart said he believes it will get the Raiders and the Athletics onboard for a multi-use sports and retail facility along Oakland's shoreline.

"We're not making Kool-Aid," he said. "It's not just going to flower up and all of that happen. But we believe that we can open negotiations, we believe that we can identify the things that need to be done, we can identify the master developer."

The master developer would actually build and construct the Coliseum project. They are still looking for him now.

Reed says he's been working on this project for 18 years and he was one of the people who was pessimistic about this ever happening. But on Tuesday he said he finally believes it's going to happen.

Still a lot of work to be done, but the city now believes they have some real money behind the Coliseum City project.