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The Los Angeles Raiders were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). The Raiders played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994 before moving back to Oakland, California, where the team played from its inaugural 1960 season through 1981, and then again from 1995 to 2019.
The team's first home game in Los Angeles was at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on November 22, 1982, after a 57-day player strike. They played their last game as a Los Angeles–based team on December 24, 1994. During their tenure in Los Angeles, the Raiders won four Division titles (AFC West), and one Super Bowl championship: 1983 (XVIII).
After both the Raiders and the Rams left Los Angeles after the 1994 season, Los Angeles was left without an NFL team until the 2016 season.
One major factor for Davis in moving to the Coliseum—despite its flaws as a football stadium—was his assumption that the NFL would eventually approve pay-per-view telecasts for its games; such a move would potentially have given the Raiders a virtual TV monopoly in Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest TV market. Davis also counted on being able to persuade the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission to renovate the facility, particularly by installing scores of luxury boxes. The UCLA Bruins moved their home to the Rose Bowl Stadium in response to the Raiders' arrival.
The Los Angeles teams of the 1980s featured three future Hall of Famers—running back Marcus Allen, defensive lineman Howie Long, and cornerback Mike Haynes—and multisport sensation Bo Jackson, who excelled in both Major League Baseball (MLB) and the NFL as a running back.
In 1983, the Raiders compiled a 12–4 record and a first-place finish in the AFC West. In the playoffs, they convincingly defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 38–10 in the Divisional Round, and Seattle Seahawks 30–14 in the 1983 AFC Championship Game to advance to Super Bowl XVIII against the Washington Redskins at Tampa Stadium. With seven seconds remaining in the first half, linebacker Jack Squirek intercepted a Joe Theismann swing pass at the Washington five-yard line and scored, sending the Raiders to a 21–3 halftime lead. Los Angeles sealed the game when Hall of Fame running back Marcus Allen reversed his route on a Super Bowl record run that turned into a 74-yard touchdown. The Raiders went on to a 38–9 victory and their third NFL championship. Allen, who was named Super Bowl MVP, set a Super Bowl record for most rushing yards (191) and combined yards (209).
The Raiders had another successful regular season in 1984, finishing 11–5, but a three-game losing streak in late October and early November forced them to enter the playoffs as the second wild card team. They were defeated by the Seahawks in the Wild Card Playoffs, 13–7. The 1985 campaign saw 12 wins and another division title, but the first-seeded Raiders suffered a humiliating 27–20 defeat at the hands of the New England Patriots in the Divisional Playoffs.
As early as 1986, Davis began to seek a new, more modern stadium away from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the dangerous neighborhood that surrounded it at the time (which caused the NFL to schedule the Raiders' Monday Night Football appearances as away games). In addition to the team having to share the venue with the USC Trojans, the Coliseum was aging and still lacked the luxury suites and other amenities that Davis was promised when he moved the Raiders to Los Angeles.Dickey, Just Win, Baby. p. 230. Finally, the Coliseum had 100,000 seats and was rarely able to fill all of them, and so most Raiders home games were blacked out on television. In August 1987, it was announced that the city of Irwindale, California paid Davis $10 million as a good-faith deposit for a prospective stadium site, though Davis later kept the deposit despite the bid being abandoned by the team. During this time Davis also almost moved the team to Sacramento in a deal that would have included Davis becoming the managing partner of the Sacramento Kings.
Shell's five-plus-year tenure as head coach in Los Angeles was marked particularly by a bitter dispute between star running back Marcus Allen and Al Davis. The exact source of the friction is completely unknown but a contract dispute led Davis to refer to Allen as "a cancer on the team." By the late 1980s, injuries began to reduce Allen's role in the offense. This role was reduced further in 1987, when the Raiders drafted Bo Jackson—even though he originally decided to not play professional football in 1986 (when drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first round). By 1990, Allen had dropped to fourth on the team's depth chart, leading to resentment on the part of his teammates. In late 1992 Allen lashed out publicly at Davis, and accused him of trying to ruin his career. In 1993, Allen left to play for the rival Kansas City Chiefs. Shell was fired after posting a 9–7 record in the 1994 season.
The team had also reconsidered the site adjacent to Foothill Freeway's junction with Interstate 605 in Irwindale, California, 18 miles east of Los Angeles.Dickey, Just Win, Baby. p. 232. Originally sought by the Raiders in 1987, plans continuously failed to materialize as the team looked to convert land formerly operated by a quarry as a candidate for a stadium site. City officials in Irwindale offered Davis a $10 million deposit as an incentive to consider the site. Despite a further $10 million being invested by the city into environmental surveys, legal fees, and approvals for usage of the land. For conflicted reasons, Davis accepted the $10 million from the city's bid, but later declined any future proposals for the site.
On June 23, 1995, Davis signed a letter of intent to move the Raiders back to Oakland. The move was approved by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors the next month, as well as by the NFL. The move was greeted with much fanfare, and under new head coach Mike White. Hollywood Park would later become the site of an SoFi Stadium for their former rivals, the Los Angeles Rams and a division rival, the Los Angeles Chargers.
| 38–9 | |||||
| Total Super Bowls won: 1 | |||||
| 30–14 | ||||
| Total AFC Championships won: 1 | ||||
| AFL champions (1960–1969) | Super Bowl champions (1966–present) | Conference champions | Division champions | Wild Card berth |
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| Los Angeles Raiders | ||||||||||||
On April 22, 2015, the Carson City Council bypassed the option to put the stadium to public vote and approved the plan 3–0. The council voted without having clarified several issues, including who would finance the stadium, how the required three-way land swap would be performed, and how it would raise enough revenue if only one team moved in as tenant.
On May 19, 2015, the Chargers and Raiders announced that they had finalized a deal to secure land in Carson which was transferred to a joint powers authority in Carson after the 157-acre site was purchased by Carson Holdings, a company set up by the two teams.
The league was skeptical of the site due to a poorly drawn structure to apply for local bonds to fund the construction; and preferred the Rams' stadium plan on a site at Hollywood Park in Inglewood (which was privately financed), another proposed stadium site rejected by the Raiders in 1995. In response, Jerry Richardson, then owner of the Carolina Panthers, who supported the plan, convinced Chargers owner Dean Spanos to recruit Bob Iger, the then CEO of The Walt Disney Company. Iger was appointed non-executive chairman of the Carson stadium project.
On January 4, 2016, the Raiders filed to move, as had the Chargers and Rams.
Despite the sales pitch from Bob Iger, many owners held reservations about the Carson site, with Jerry Jones even making a wise crack about Bob Iger. The committee set up by the league initially recommended the Carson Site, but the Chargers and Raiders were unable to secure the votes they needed to move. After hours of debate, the NFL owners voted to allow the St. Louis Rams to move back to Los Angeles after a two-decade absence on January 12, 2016, with the San Diego Chargers having the option to join them within a year.
It was still possible, however, for the Raiders to move as they could have moved into the SoFi Stadium with the Rams if the Chargers opted to stay in San Diego. On January 12, 2017, the Chargers opted to join the Rams in Los Angeles, thereby closing the door on the return of the Raiders to the city. Although with an AFC West rival playing in Los Angeles, the Raiders get at least one game in Los Angeles each season playing the Los Angeles Chargers.
Today, Southern Californians remain Raiders fans, more than two decades after they left. Numerous Raiders fans are typically present during their annual matchup against the Chargers as well as games against the Rams at SoFi Stadium, Southern Californian fans are also known to make the 3-hour drive to the team's home games in Las Vegas.
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