Hill: Role of Las Vegas in demise of Oakland Coliseum area tough to ignore

OAKLAND, Calif. — It didn’t take long walking around the area of Oakland Coliseum on Saturday to start to feel nostalgic.

Sad, too.

Maybe even guilty?

In the end, we the people of southern Nevada did this.

Even if the blame partly, or even mostly, falls on the city of Oakland for failing to make it work here. And even if the Raiders and A’s would have found somewhere else to move if Las Vegas, and to some extent Sacramento, didn’t offer a soft landing spot.

Mark Davis never wanted to stay in Oakland, and that is also a big part of what happened, but he can’t be blamed because he did what was best for him and his team financially. Same goes for John Fisher, though he shouldn’t be absolved of anything.

The Giants got in the way of the A’s finding a profitable path to staying, as well.

The list goes on and on, but you know what? There is plenty of blame to go around from leagues to fellow teams to poor ownership and on and on and on. That’s not what matters.

What is evident, regardless of fault, is that the neighborhood surrounding the coliseum went from decrepit to miserable. It’s as if the area was on life support and the Raiders and A’s pulled the plug on the way out of town.

Streets in the area, a short tram ride from the airport, are lined with the remains of demolished buildings that were once businesses that served the area even if they weren’t thriving.

Many of those that are still standing are closed and waiting to meet their final demise. Even several of the Oakland airport hotels have shuttered.

It’s what happens when major professional sports franchises leave town, especially in venues that aren’t downtown or in already thriving tourist areas. In this case, it was three of them with the Warriors moving across the Bay to San Francisco.

None of this is to say Las Vegas should have passed on welcoming the A’s and Raiders to town and even encouraging their flight with massive cash incentives.

The bill could have been written better with more favorable terms for southern Nevada attached to all that cash, but that’s a personal soapbox I have screamed from since the day the bill was passed.

What’s important here is that luring the Raiders and A’s was good for us. Like, amazing. And bad for Oakland.

The debate once again is sparked by the Raiders’ return to the area for their first regular-season game since leaving when they play the 49ers in Santa Clara on Sunday.

Being back has brought up a lot of emotions.

It’s OK to feel guilt about what we did to this place while still celebrating and appreciating the benefit we got from it back home.

We won. But we don’t have to spike the football in their face and dance over their corpse.

None of this is an ode to Oakland Coliseum. As much as anyone who had the pleasure to attend or cover games there likes to romanticize the experience, we need to be honest.

It was a dump.

But that dump had character. And rats. There was no shortage of character or rats. This point can’t be stressed enough.

The concourses were dark and dangerous. Concession stands and restrooms were badly outdated. The Raiders and A’s would have needed to start over and build something new to make it work. But it could have worked. At least some of the local businesses, the fabric of any community, could have been spared and civic pride repaired.

It just didn’t have to be like this. It’s hard to look at. Difficult to return to see first-hand a downward spiral we played such a role in triggering.

But the Raiders will be back home next week at beautiful Allegiant Stadium, which if memory serves from the construction fact sheet is built of steel, concrete, polycarbonate and the tears of Oakland sports fans.

It will be yet another reminder of what we have and what the people here no longer do.

It doesn’t feel like it had to be this way, but we can agree it’s better than the other way around.

And there are no rats at Allegiant Stadium

Contact Adam Hill at [email protected]. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.