Raiders May Leave Chilly Oxnard for Northridge

The Raiders, who arrived in Oxnard three years ago and found the streets festooned with black banners proclaiming, “Raider Country,” are considering leaving amid less fanfare.

Nine weeks before its scheduled opening, they are talking about moving their summer training camp to Cal State Northridge. Owner Al Davis visited the campus Monday, and promotions manager Mike Ornstein was to meet with school officials today.

The Raiders’ complaint? It’s not hot enough in Oxnard.

Oxnard’s complaint? The Raiders have a lease with the city.

“Well, I think we’re really concerned,” John Tooker, Oxnard’s assistant city manager, said Thursday. “Upset? I think we’d be upset if they come in and said they’re leaving. But we don’t want to react prematurely.

“They have a five-year deal with us, through 1990.”

Tooker said the city spent about $1 million buying the land for the Raider facility, which is now leased to the team for $1 a year. In addition, the city assumed the expense--about $135,000, Tooker said--of the team’s move from the temporary site used in 1985 to the permanent one used in 1986 and ’87.

Losing the Raiders would be a blow to civic pride in Oxnard. Landing the Raiders had been hailed as a great promotion for the city, whose prior fame had largely been restricted to the times when Johnny Carson made fun of its name in his monologues.

“I think the community views their presence here as an asset,” Tooker said. “I don’t think it’s a straight dollars-cents thing.”

The move from the temporary site used the first year took the Raiders 2 miles to the west, next to an all-suite, resort hotel, where the players are housed in luxury unmatched by any other National Football League team’s facility.

However, it also put them two miles closer to the beach. The Raiders soon found, and began grumbling about, their move underneath a late-afternoon fog bank, which brought temperatures down and which, they feared, made it harder to sweat the players into shape.

So they began looking around. Other sites checked reportedly included Cal State Long Beach, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State Bakersfield, College of the Canyons and the University of Redlands.

Said executive assistant Al LoCasale: “The Raiders have felt the last two years there was a lack of heat in training camp and have for some time been looking at alternate sites for part of the preseason period, if it would be a move conducive to the physical preparation of the squad.”

The deal being discussed with Northridge is for the full summer period, July 15-Aug. 15, according to John Sanders, the facilities management officer of CS Northridge’s North Campus.

“What we’re trying to do is revise some facilities for their use,” Sanders said. “If we can do it at a dollar figure they like, we’re in good shape.”

According to CS Northridge Athletic Director Bob Heigert, negotiations have gotten down to specifics: The school has a main locker room that will accommodate 90 players, and the Raiders need room for 120. The Raiders would also want the football field improved.

But would Oxnard wave a fond goodby and just leave it at that?

Tooker said that all the things the Raiders contracted for have been provided.

“It’s all been done,” he said. “Our deadlines have been met. The most important one was last year, when the hotel was completed.”

So, if the Raiders were to try to leave, would Oxnard sue?

“I don’t want to speculate on that,” Tooker said.

“They need to be talking to us. They haven’t been in touch, other than one call, which I initiated.

“We’ve heard (second-hand) that they had some concern about the weather. I don’t know if that was because of the distance they moved, or if we just had a couple of cool summers.

“But there’s no weather provision in their contract.”