Oakland City Council accelerates Raiders stadium vote

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ByLaura Anthony KGO logo
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Oakland City Council accelerates Raiders stadium vote
Oakland City Council has accelerated the process to vote on a term sheet provided by Ronnie Lott.

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Oakland City Council is poised to take the next step toward building a new stadium for the Raiders.

FULL INTERVIEW: Bay Area legend Ronnie Lott shares plan to save Raiders with ABC7's Mike Shumann

It's a closed door meeting that supporters hope will open up a new path to keeping the Silver and Black in town.

This is a critical day for Oakland's stadium proposal and the continuing effort to keep the Raiders in this city.

Mayor Libby Schaaf and members of the city council went into closed session to discuss a proposal-- a term sheet from Ronnie Lott and his investment group called Fortress.

We understand the key element is the coliseum land that is owned jointly by the city and the county.

A key requirement several city council members told us that it does not require any public funds, unlike Las Vegas, which has committed $750 million in taxpayer money to a new stadium for the Raiders.

"I certainly hope that at least five of the council, in closed session will give direction to the city administrator to move forward," said Larry Ried of the Oakland City Council.

"Hopefully out of today we share with the supervisors, and move it out and let them negotiate with Davis and the NFL," said fellow councilmember Noel Gallo.

This is a closed session and we understand that it takes five votes to get the deal from the Lott Group to move ahead and be on the agenda for the city council's next public meeting on Dec. 7.

At the same time the Alameda County Board of Supervisors will also be considering the proposal from the Lott Group.

RELATED: Raiders owner Mark Davis: Oakland 'shut the door on itself' in stadium move

The hope is the city, county and coliseum authority will all approve the deal. It will send a clear message to NFL owners at their next meeting in mid Dec. It is clear that Oakland has a viable plan to keep the Raiders in the East Bay.

What is unclear is whether Raiders owner Mark Davis has been involved in any of these discussions.

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