49ers may be looking to team with Raiders on a joint stadium

Here's the latest twist to the Bay Area's topsy-turvy stadium politics: Word is the San Francisco 49ers have informally approached the Oakland Raiders about building a new home -- together.

The stadium, which would be shared by the two rivals, very well could be in Santa Clara, where the Niners are pursuing new digs next to Great America.

Niners executive Jed York, the son of team owners John and Denise York, said that while a joint stadium idea has merit, there has been no contact with the Raiders on the subject.

"I think it's a good idea, but we haven't gone down that road yet,'' he said. "First we need to work on Santa Clara, and make sure we can actually get a stadium down there.''

That's not what we are hearing from inside the Raiders organization, and from others in the know who have contacts with the Niners.

Those sources tell us John and Jed York approached the Raiders management in a casual setting in the latter half of the football season about the possibility of teaming up.

Raiders chief executive Amy Trask said only, "We are enthusiastically focused on the 2007 football season, and don't believe this is an appropriate time to discuss stadium opportunities. ...We are playing in a nice stadium, which our teams and fans enjoy.''

Wild as it may sound, the economics for a Forty-Raider stadium just could make sense for both teams.

Hey GOP Raider you ever been to SO CAL during the time when Raiders play in So Cal

Oddly enough, my tagline references this very thing, sort of. The very first Raider game I attended in person was in 1990 against the Green Bay Packers, who were coached by Lindy Infante at the time, I believe (does that sound right Extremely Extreme Extremist?). My uncle lived in SoCal (you probably know where Torrance is?) at the time and our family lived in the Bay Area, so we used that as an excuse to take "vacations" down to LA.

(That was also the same weekend my Dad got the idea, such as it was, to take the "scenic route" down to LA. The "scenic route" in this case was the Pacific Coast Highway. Now, I don't know if you've ever seen the current CapitalOne ad campaign where a man and his family are forced to take "virtual" vacations, fly on crop dusters, and all manner of "vacations" because his credit card miles have expired. Well, this is what that trip was like. The PCH is great if you're thinking about having kids. It's not great if you already have three of them all under the age of 10--me being the oldest--couped up in a leased Dodge Caravan terrified that with one wrong turn, you could become a shark's next meal.)

But I digress. I remember two things primarily about that game:

1) The Raiders ended up losing that game. It wasn't a good day to be QB Jay Schroeder, but then again, it's never really a good day to be Jay. Poor guy, his only crime was being mediocre.

2) I was 9 years old at the time, so I didn't really have much of an understanding of what was going on, particularly with the crowd on hand. On our way into the north end of the Coliseum (the side where Exposition Park is), I noticed a guy who was shivering and twitching very nervously--probably high--and my first reaction, not really knowing any better, was "oh, he looks cold, I'll go find a blanket for him." Fortunately, my uncle noticed my wild eyed naivete and promptly grabbed me to make sure that it didn't turn into a misplaced good deed.

So, to answer your question the easy and simple way, yes. :)

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