While NFL owners voted overwhelmingly to approve their move to Las Vegas, the Raiders will still call Oakland home for at least two more lame-duck seasons, so count Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green among football fans who would prefer the Bay Area didn’t show up for games in 2017.
Presumably a Detroit Lions fan, the Saginaw native — who once played a spring football game for Michigan State University — was asked after a win over the Houston Rockets about his thoughts on the NFL endorsing Raiders owner Mark Davis’ plan to move from Oakland to Las Vegas in the near future.
Draymond had strong feelings on the Raiders moving to Las Vegas – you'll want to listen to this pic.twitter.com/mdX0OMVeq1— CSN Warriors News (@CSNWarriors) March 29, 2017
“That’s crazy,” Green told reporters. “I feel bad for the city of Oakland, man. I don’t even know how that’s going to work, honestly, with a football team moving to Las Vegas. I feel bad for the city. If I were the fans, I wouldn’t attend a game for the next three years. But that’s just me. That’s ridiculous. No way I’d pay my money to attend a game.“That’s like moving the Dallas Cowboys or moving the Packers. Moving the Raiders? You can move a lot of teams, but there aren’t many fanbases like the Raiders fanbase. It’s like moving the Boston Celtics from Boston or the Lakers from L.A. You just don’t move certain franchises with the fanbase that they have.”
Yes, the Raiders have an avid fanbase, and yes, there will be those who (rightfully) feel scorned enough to boycott, but we should point out that the franchise moved from Oakland to L.A. in 1982 and back to Oakland in 1995. So, while the comparison to the Lakers, who moved from Minneapolis to L.A. in 1960, might be apt, it’s not quite the same as moving the Cowboys, Celtics or Packers, who have been entrenched in their cities since the dawns of the franchises in 1921, 1946 and 1960, respectively.
Still, Green’s overarching point is spot-on: He feels bad Oakland’s rabid fanbase (who lost their team only because they weren’t willing to hand over the ransom of $750 million in taxes for a new stadium).
Now, we might point out the hypocrisy of the Warriors also moving from Oakland — the city they’ve called home for a half-century (after moves from Philadelphia and San Francisco in the 1960s) — in 2019, when their new stadium is slated to be finished in San Francisco. But at least they’re paying for their own arena and are only moving a half-hour west across the Bay Bridge, or so says Green.
“It’s one thing if you’re moving them from Oakland to Fremont or something, but to Las Vegas?” added the Warriors forward. “I wouldn’t attend a game. I won’t attend a game, and I’m not a diehard Raiders fan, but I do support the city of Oakland, so it ain’t for me. I feel like all fans should feel that way. You just don’t do that. C’mon, man. That’s ridiculous.”
But there are those in Oakland who also feel “insulted” by the Warriors’ move to San Francisco (a city with its own NFL franchise, too), especially by the manner in which Golden State is going about it.
Joe Lacob calls SF the "greatest city in the world." Adds, "It has become even a greater city over the past decade or so"— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) January 17, 2017
When the Warriors held a groundbreaking ceremony this past January geared toward the wealthy tech crowd they so coveted, complete with dancing construction workers and excavators moving in unison to the Viennese waltz, intrepid Bay Area News Group columnist and Oakland native Marcus Thompson wrote, “Today, while the Warriors celebrated their hard-fought achievement, I’d rather chill with those who see this as an elite takeover — who invested into the Warriors and whose interest makes this team cool and hip and popular enough for the ownership to go make a killing on the Silicon Valley crowd. Today, I choose not to act like the Warriors moving to San Francisco is a great thing.”
So, while Green’s advice to the city’s rabid fanbase may be sound, forgive them if it rings a bit hollow.
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