Las Vegas Raiders

Floyd Kephart: Oakland won't invest to keep the Raiders

Published Jul. 2, 2015 3:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

The details of Floyd Kephart's leaked Oakland stadium proposal have been widely panned.

Kephart offered a simple response -- the city of Oakland just isn't willing to open its wallets to keep professional football in town.

"The city and county have made it really clear that they want all of this to be 100% privately financed as it relates to any sports team, and that makes it complicated because the average fan doesn't understand that's why the city and county's not writing a check," Kephart told Fred Roggin on LA station 980 The Beast. "So that they have something to vote against the next time they see taxpayer money going up."

Oakland residents are understandably hesitant when it comes to a tax hike. They've been saddled with the Silver and Black's last stadium upgrades -- $100 million in renovations back in 1996 that public funds are still paying off.

O.Co Coliseum has been outdated for years since. Kephart wants to give the Raiders a new, state-of-the-art home, but says that won't happen if the community refused to help.

"The city and the county are not putting in a penny and they keep saying they want to save the team, we're making every effort to stay here, but the city and county's not making an investment," he said. "They've rolled out the red carpet, but it's about 100 yards short of the entrance to the field."

(h/t Silver and Black Pride)