We Believe?

A new arena for the Warriors is included in the plans for Coliseum City. There may also be room to build an arena near the proposed new A’s stadium at Howard Terminal. Public funds are unlikely to be used for either site. “That’s a nonstarter in Oakland,” says Quan. Adds Dobbins: “If it were up to people like me, yeah, I’d vote for using public money.”

But, Dobbins admits, “This is Oakland. This is a city with a lot of challenges. Financing a stadium isn’t high on the list. There are too many other issues in this city for that.”

Just ask Wanda Sanford. She doesn’t care much about the Raiders, nor about the Warriors or the A’s. Her team is the Oakland Dynamites, a youth football program that runs from ages 5 to 15. She’s a former team mom and now the organization’s president, and she’d rather not talk about a new stadium for billionaire owners, millionaire players, and suburban commuter fans. “Look at this field,” she says, gesturing toward a couple hundred children running around a nondescript swath of grass. “We need to get this thing renovated.” What she needs more than anything, she says, are new lights.

In all the conversations about Oakland — about its fans and restaurateurs, its artists and activists — one slice of the population is underrepresented. Oakland’s black community has been shrinking, both in numbers and in power, for years. Between 2000 and 2010, Oakland lost about 33,000 African American residents. As of the last census, blacks still represent the largest ethnic group in the city,3 but in a city long known for the influence of its African American culture, the decline is stark. And when you talk to the fans most passionate about keeping the teams in town, you’ll notice a theme. Some live in the suburbs, like Dublin or Clayton Valley. Others live in nearby cities like El Cerrito or Richmond. Perez, better known as Dr. Death, lives 90 minutes away in West Sacramento. Most are white or Latino. Only a few are black.

“I don’t really see much of a connection between the teams and the community,” says Jeff Cotton, one of the Oakland Dynamites coaches, almost all of whom, like almost all of their players, are African American. “I mean, look at this” — he points to the field — “there should be Raiders and A’s coming out once a year or so to talk to kids, show them what they could be. They should be willing to help out with facilities, entry fees, just something.”

Adds Diesel Sutherland, another coach: “Back in the ’70s? Those cats represented Oakland. Kenny Stabler, Vida Blue. They put in their time with the community. These cats today don’t represent Oakland. They represent the Bay Area. It’s a whole different thing.”

This field is still filled with Raiders fans, though a few have hopped aboard the Niners’ bandwagon, and a few others pledge loyalty to the Cowboys, geography be damned. Still, Cotton says: “As long as those teams have Oakland on the jersey, it says we’re on the map. You take those teams away, then the Coliseum is just a parking lot. Then it says we don’t deserve to have something to cheer for.”

Yet the coaches would rather not talk about the pro teams for too long. Instead they’re focused on academic progress reports — they require each player to get one every week — and they’re focused on finding and helping kids who can’t pay entry fees, on making sure none of the equipment gets lost. And they’re focused on lights.

It is nice, yes, to think that pro franchises matter; and to season-ticket holder Chris Dobbins and Dr. Death Ray Perez and concession worker Maggie Gibson and to countless others they certainly do. But “those owners are gonna do what they’re gonna do,” says Dynamites coach Marquis Ransom Sr. “It’s not going to change this right here, not really. We’re still gonna be out here.”

A moment later he points at the lights. “Just wait a minute,” he says. “You’ll see.” And soon enough the sun goes down and the lights flick on, only they’re so dim you would never know it, and 200 kids are still passing and catching and hitting, five miles from the Coliseum, playing football in the dark.

Article Appeared @http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9754585/is-oakland-destined-lose-professional-teams

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *