Elephant in the stadium: the Raiders

As Comrade Knapp has the "How do the 49ers pay their chunk?" piece nailed down, let us spend this brief interlude discussing another likely hole in the plan:

The Raiders.

Everyone seems to agree that a shared stadium makes the best sense, which is why we tend to apply the "Oh yeah?" standard and suggest that therein lies the reason why it probably will fail. And that reason is the Raiders' essentially unstable situation.

Finding a place to put the stadium won't be that much of a problem because, one presumes, the Raiders' lawyers will find a way for Al Davis to be richly compensated for inconveniencing his fan base's wallets, while maintaining an even split with the 49ers in whatever equity arrangement the stadium provides. In short, he won't have to deliver as much of the financing.

But the spanner in the spokes comes when one asks the next question, which is, "Will Al sign a long-term anything with anyone after his perceived crummy experiences in Oakland and then Los Angeles?" That's harder to imagine, given that Al has learned the dangers of being boxed in by anyone. Getting him to agree to anything long term is going to be much harder than it looks.

And then, there is the indelicate series of follow-ups, namely, "What if control should pass from Al to his son, Mark, or some other designated heir or heirs?" Would they want to commit to a stadium that locks them into second-tenant status for the next quarter-century or so? Would they want to resist the temptation of some billion-dollar (give or take) purchase offer from someone who wants to go to L.A.?

You see, there's a good idea, and then there's a good idea for some but not for others, and then there's a good idea until you're the one left holding the bag.

That's why the 49ers, fresh off their overwhelming mandate (23 percent of the registered voters of Santa Clara love them) and at such a low price ($360 per "Yes" vote, give or take a Tootsie Roll Pop), have to be leery of taking on the Raiders as partners and leery of not having them as partners. In short, getting the 11,023 votes was the easy part. Playing with Al will be something else entirely.

And if dealing with Al isn't the time when Jed the Boy King becomes a full-on adult businessman, it will never happen for him.

This article appeared on page B - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle