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The Oakland Raiders will pay $3.5 million in rent to play at O.co Coliseum in 2016, an increase of more than triple what the team paid last year. The rent is up from $925,000 the Raiders paid in 2015, according to the terms of the contract as reported by the Bay Area News Group.
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The Raiders and the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Joint Powers Authority agreed to a one-year extension last month that includes an additional two years of team options after the 2016 season.
The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority approved the agreement at a meeting Friday. It now heads to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and Oakland City Council for approval.
Scott McKibben, the executive director of the Coliseum authority, said the rent increase accounts for increased costs for game day security and other factors.
"We're more or less trying to pass along some of these (costs) to the Raiders which is not unlike any other NFL team," McKibben told the Bay Area News Group. "I spent a lot of time visiting with a lot of other NFL teams and this has been customary throughout the league. And quite honestly at the end of the day the Raiders were very cooperative with us on that."
The St. Louis Rams were approved by the NFL in January to move to Los Angeles, and the San Diego Chargers have an option to join the Rams at their yet-to-be-built stadium in Inglewood, Calif. The new stadium is expected to be completed by the 2019 season.
The Raiders might move after next season but must wait until after the Chargers make a decision on whether they want to join the Rams.
Raiders owner Mark Davis continues to flirt with other cities, including a recent visit to Las Vegas to discuss a potential venue a few blocks off the Vegas Strip.
The Las Vegas Sands Corp. has proposed a $1 billion domed stadium project near UNLV, which is between the airport and the Vegas Strip, and Davis met with Sands chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson in January.
