Could the Oakland Raiders Be Moving To San Antonio?

So today, there is a rumor floating around concerning the Oakland Raiders and the possibility of relocation to San Antonio, Texas, so that they could play their games in the Alamodome. From Sportsnet’s article on the subject:

“I was asked to meet two weeks ago with the owner of the Oakland Raiders, Mark Davis [Owner of the Oakland Raiders], and members of his staff. Mr. Davis has expressed interest in a possible relocation of his NFL team to San Antonio and we are engaged in preliminary due diligence,” [San Antonio City Manager Sheryl Sculley] wrote, according to the Express-News. “The agenda for this visit included a tour of the Alamodome and meetings with local business leaders.”

Firstly, I’m just shocked that there’s a relocation rumor centered around a city other than Los Angeles. I guess by this point, cities realize that if an NFL owner is talking about moving to Los Angeles, they’re just blowing smoke out of their rear end and also mouthing code-word for “Gimme new stadium pleeezzzz.”

However, I don’t think that the Raiders are going to move to San Antonio. If Al Davis was still around, I’d put it as a strong maybe (and also say that they’d be back in Oakland in the future once a potential stadium deal in San Antonio fell through because it’s a Raider tradition to leave Oakland then come back later), but I doubt that new ownership would want to break the link between the Raiders and the city of Oakland, so I don’t think that they’d leave.

Plus, the Dallas Cowboys consider that to be their territory. Texas is a big state, but it’s kind of hard to get people there to drop their allegiances to the ‘Boys for another team. Just ask the Houston Texans, who would also probably be against a team in San Antonio. Needless to say, there are a lot of obstacles blocking a potential move to San Antonio for the Raiders, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Now, the most important question from our point of view is: Would this result in the Raiders changing their name and/or identity for a potential move to San Antonio? Well that’s easy: No. The Raiders have one of the most iconic identities in all of sports. From the uniforms to the logos, there is no way that that is going to be messed with. They could move to Singapore and they’d still be the Singapore Raiders.

Plus, there’s also the idea of city sports synergy. When you think of Pittsburgh, you think of black & yellow? Well, in the unlikely event that the Raiders do move to San Antonio, the two colors that you’d think of when you think of that city would be black & silver, and it’s obvious why: The current NBA Champions San Antonio Spurs are already there. There’s nothing better for civic pride (and your wallet) than to be able to wear similar colors to multiple professional sports events. Got some black attire that you wear to Spurs games? Just throw some spikes on it and slap on a eye patch while you’re at it and look at that, you’re geared up for the Raiders game.

Once again, this is all very unlikely, and there’s also the other possibility that includes Oakland pulling a Cleveland Browns/Seattle Sonics deal by keeping the nickname and history in Oakland so that another city wouldn’t be able to claim it as their own. So, that, among with other more business-like reasons are what’s keeping the idea of the San Antonio Raiders as just that: An idea.

What do you guys make of this, though? Do you think that the Raiders could be on the move? Do you think that the nickname would also go as well?