Oakland Lost The Raiders To Las Vegas So Doing A Super Bowl 60 Events Is Tough

The next Super Bowl is going to be in the San Francisco Bay area. That’s right. It’s actually going to be at Levi

Stadium again next year, first Sunday in February.

Last time the Bay Area was in that position, it was for the 50th Super Bowl, right? So, this is 10 years later.

And we have to give massive credit to the job that now San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and his team at the host committee did in preparing the region for Super Bowl 50. But now he is got a gigantic job in revitalizing San Francisco. And by all accounts, he’s doing a great job.

But that’s not what this is about. I was approached recently to provide my input and advice regarding

what an organization should do connected with Oakland in producing an event for Super Bowl 60.

However, unlike 10 years ago, the situation is dramatically different. 10 years ago, we had the Raiders.

And even though the Raiders, as you know, was 2015, the Raiders were in the middle of working to build a new

stadium in Oakland, working with a developer.

The Oakland Raiders were playing host to sellout crowds at the Coliseum, and life was grand. The Raiders staff was only too happy to help and produce their own Super Bowl 50 related events. And for good reason, because the way the Super Bowl is structured, it’s also for the NFL family.

NFL Team Owners fly into town, bring their families, and they are going to want to know from other owners in this instance. then the owners of the Raiders and the 49ers as really the joint host organizations. Where to stay, what to do, all that is mapped out by the host committee, but then it has to be put in action and that’s where the teams provide some help in terms of staffing and volunteers. The rest are provided by the

host committee.

This year, San Francisco Bay Area has one NFL team, the 49ers. 10 years ago when the Raiders were in

town, I mentioned that and I took a pretty good amount of time in extoling the virtues of having events in

Oakland and making sure that Oakland was represented and making sure that people knew that several years before that, I led a delegation and I was tabbed by the city of Oakland to start and execute Oakland’s only bid for a Super Bowl game. In other words, we’re ready.

A lot of people chimed in led by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and one of the major events among those held in Oakland was a business mixer that was held in May of 2015 and it was a massive success. It was at the Scottish Wright Temple.

A number of people there were able to tie in with NFL vendors and NFL officials and get work from the Super

Bowl. Well, folks, this year that meeting was not held in Oakland at all. It was held in Redwood City and people

who were from different parts of the Bay Area were expected to know about the event and drive down to or get down to maybe helicopter down in Redwood City.

Oakland did not have an event. And so now the question is, how do you establish an Oakland presence for a Super Bowl game where the NFL does not have an Oakland team? And the answer is this. First of all, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee has to be right front and center involved in forming a task force that will be the

official blesser, if you will, working with a host committee of Oakland based events.

Second, which should those Oakland based events be? Well, the host committee wants events that basically

reflect different aspects of the NFL experience. For example, 40-yard dashes and that sort of thing. I know a perfect place where those could be set up. There are various spots along Jack London Square in the waterfront that would be wonderful. In fact, when I formed the bid to bring the Super Bowl to Oakland, starting in 1999 and for the 2004 game, 2005 Super Bowl, originally we started with 2004, I created something called

Jack London’s NFL Playland. Well, why not start there again? After all, I wrote the blueprint.

What’s Jack London’s NFL Playland? We encircled a

boundary around Jack London Square, set up areas for different pavilions, as we called them, for rock and roll bands or rap bands and Oakland, all Oakland artists, places where Oakland

culinary artists could apply their trade, kind of a taste of Oakland set up within it, and we charged a fee.

The majority of the revenue from that was designed to go to Oakland nonprofits. and it was praised by the NFL as a setup. And that type of way of making sure that people came to Oakland was actually replicated by other Super Bowl designers and planners in the years after our bidding. 

Even though we lost even though we lost to Jacksonville for the right to host the 2005 game where Oakland was a finalist against Miami and Jacksonville. So you have to establish a central place and in that central place around that central place you marshall then the various different types of activities you’re going to have. Who would pay for it? you say? Well, I think it should be a combination of found funds. Uh the question is what would it cost?

That’s a good question. And I believe that a good ballpark figure is about I would say $30,000 for setup. 30,000 to 40,000 for setup and communications and staffing. Um and you would say, why spend that kind of money? My answer is simple. Marketing. Oakland has to prove it has

the will and the initiative to go after big events, to market itself during a big event and and demonstrate that it is a place to be, a place where people can live, start their businesses, and safely enjoy the beauty that Oakland within the San Francisco Bay area offers.

So, Super Bowl 60 should be seen as Oakland’s time to shine, even if it doesn’t have an NFL team. Someone else said, “What about that?” The Oakland Roots and the Oakland Ballers want to do their events. Fine, but both organizations have to do them under the logo of the the host committee for the Super Bowl 60 effort. 

So what they do should be what they want to do should be brought to the attention of the host committee and a meeting with the mayor and staff perhaps on Zoom or or similar technology and get their approval. And all of this needs to be set up so that you’re targeting the first two weeks of the Super Bowl period when everybody is in town, not necessarily before, but you really want to strike the magic mark. Make sure you’re designing your own media with your own YouTube channel and Instagram channel and social medias all centered around what Oakland’s going to do.

So, I’ve laid out the broad brush strokes and given you some idea of how this should look, but Oakland has got to work together. I understand that there are East Bay organizations

talking about forming a sports commission. Um, Jesus says, “I wonder if Oakland could afford another NFL team to build their stadium in Oakland.” Well, that’s a another question. 

That’s a question for another time and I’ll take that up in another live stream. But I want to focus singularly on how to get Oakland in the game of marketing itself during Super Bowl 60

because that’s the start. All right. If you can have at least one person come away saying, you know, maybe Oakland deserves another shot at having an NFL team or an NBA team or a Major League Baseball team then. or maybe Oakland’s a great place for me to have my business located in. Or maybe Oakland’s a great place for me to live in.