The NFL announced today that it will conduct public hearings later this month in Oakland, St. Louis, and San Diego as part of the league’s procedures for evaluating possible franchise relocations. The hearings will take place on October 27 (St. Louis), October 28 (San Diego) and October 29 (Oakland).
The purpose of these hearings is to provide an opportunity for fans and others in the community to ask questions and express their views directly to the NFL before any decisions are made about potential relocation of a club or clubs from a current market. Members of Commissioner Goodell’s executive staff will be in attendance to listen to comments and answer questions from the audience.
If you’ve ever watched John Oliver’s takedown of stadium financing boondoggles, the portion starting at 13:52 is highly relevant to how I think this will go down. Rapaport also says these hearings will be streamed live. If so, October 29 should be some must-see streaming, because, although Raiders fans are typically lacking in many types of characteristics, one area that they decidedly don’t lack in is passion.