Legion Field would be the perfect temporary home for the NFL’s Oakland Raiders, a Birmingham city councilor maintains.
The Raiders are scrambling for a stadium until its planned move to Las Vegas for the 2020 season after the city of Oakland filed an antitrust lawsuit against the team and the NFL in December.
Birmingham City Councilor William Parker said bringing the Raiders to the Magic City for 2019 is “a great marriage waiting to happen,” although its unclear if the Raiders are open to the idea.
“The fans in Alabama love football. Obviously, the people in San Francisco and Oakland don’t want them and there’s a fan base here for the Raiders,” Parker said, adding that he “got calls from a lot of citizens saying they’ve been Raiders fans since they were kids.”
Professional football is coming back to Birmingham on Sunday, when the Birmingham Iron play their inaugural game at Legion Field for the first season of the Alliance of American Football.
“I just think we position ourselves as a city to be a sports destination,” the councilor said. “Why not have the Raiders be a part of our Birmingham family?”
Parker said he’s talked to his colleagues and Mayor Randall Woodfin about the idea.
Questions remain as to whether Legion Field is an adequate NFL venue, but if a deal with the Raiders “requires funding for additional upgrades, I think that’s a conversation that we can have,” Parker said.