The San Francisco 49ers opened their new stadium on Thursday. The $1.2 billion stadium in Santa Clara is the first LEED Gold Certified stadium and features 165 luxury suites, 9,000 club seats and even a green roof-top deck that includes solar panels and harvested herbs for on-site food preparation. Free Wi-Fi will be available at the stadium, and a smartphone application will allow fans to have food delivered to any seat and check waiting lines at concession stands and bathrooms. It holds 68,500 but can expand to 75,000 for Super Bowl 50 in February 2016.
Meanwhile their cross-town neighbors, the Oakland Raiders, have long been trying to replace the outdated O.co Coliseum. The Coliseum host both the Raiders and MLB's Oakland Athletics but has had sewage and lighting problems for years. It is the only facility left that host both MLB and NFL. The Raiders want to demolish the Coliseum and build a new stadium on the existing site.
During the ribbon cutting ceremony for Levi Stadium on Thursday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell suggested an idea that the Raiders share the 49ers new stadium, an idea the 49ers CEO Jed York did not dismiss. However, Raiders owner Mark Davis has said he doesn't want to be a renter in the 49ers' facility.
While the suggestion of the Raiders sharing the new state of the art facility in Santa Clara rather than continue to fight with the Oakland city council to build a new stadium in Oakland seems like a no-brainer, the idea is not as great of an idea as it is presented.
First off, Levi Stadium is now fitted with red seats and posters of past and present San Francisco greats. To add the addition of the Raiders would mean either painting seats in different colors or alternating seats different weeks and also adding posters of past and present Oakland greats. Sounds easy but what colors do you paint the seats? Where do you put posters of Oakland greats?
Secondly, Santa Clara is 45 miles away from San Francisco, a problem some fans of the 49ers have already complained about. The drive is just under one hour for their faithful, but for the Raiders the drive would be just over one hour and this is not including traffic. A game between the two teams would turn into a complete nightmare traffic-wise.
Third, currently there are two teams in the NFL that share one stadium-the New York Giants and the New York Jets share MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. While two teams sharing one stadium isn't new, two teams representing two different cities would be. The Jets and Giants both represent New York so playing in the same stadium in the tri-state area isn't an issue. While Oakland and San Francisco are just 20 minutes apart, they are still separate and distinct cities.
Which leads us to fourth, and probably most important-the fans. While Oakland and San Francisco are close geographically, economically they are light years apart and their fans are as different as night and day. When you think 49er fans you think opulence, the red and gold, the faithful but subdued fans. When you think of the Raider fans you think "The Black Hole"- the brash, loud and sometimes obnoxious fans that have dutifully followed the Raiders from Oakland to LA and back again. While both fans are loyal to their teams, each is very distinct on how they show that loyalty.
When you think 49ers you think the golden boys-Joe Montana, Steve Young, Jerry Rice. When you think of the Raiders you think of the hard nose rough gritty players most teams came to hate-Jim Otto, George Atkinson, Jack Tatum. Yes Levi Stadium is state of the art and a phenomenal facility to play in, but being the renter inside another team's stadium is not something that would sit well with the owners, players or fans of the Raiders. Love them or hate them, the Raiders don't play second banana ever.
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