Oakland Raiders fans cheer at the start of their last game at the Oakland Coliseum against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Oakland on Sunday, Dec. 15, 2019. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Oakland Raiders fans cheer at the start of their last game at the Oakland Coliseum against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Oakland on Sunday, Dec. 15, 2019. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
The Raiders are back in the Bay Area to play the 49ers on Sunday afternoon at Levi’s Stadium. It remains to be seen whether the mystique of their infamous local fan base will infiltrate the stands in Santa Clara.
It’s the first time the Raiders have played a regular-season game locally since Dec. 15, 2019, a 20-16 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in their farewell game at the Coliseum.
The Raiders still have a presence in Northern California, even if numbers have inevitably dwindled after leaving for Las Vegas, where they have the type of state-of-the-art facility that team management and local politicians failed to produce in Oakland.
It is being touted as a “Return of the Battle of the Bay” by the Raiders on social media but in truth it’s not that and will never be again. As rivalries go, it’s fading to black with only a touch of silver left behind and the 49ers as the lone presence for a younger generation of NFL fans.
Oakland Raiders' Marquel Lee (52) greets fans of the Black Hole after their 20-16 lose to the Jacksonville Jaguars in their last home game at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Sunday, Dec. 15, 2019. The Raiders are moving to their new home in Las Vegas next season. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Oakland Raiders' Marquel Lee (52) greets fans of the Black Hole after their 20-16 lose to the Jacksonville Jaguars in their last home game at the Coliseum in Oakland in December of 2019.
“I know booster clubs are not doing well in the Bay Area,” said Eliseo Zepeda, chairman of the steering committee for Booster Clubs of the Raiders. “I know they’re suffering because of the move.”
There are more than 50 Raiders booster clubs that sponsor events, watch parties, travel coordination, community activities and team‑related traditions under the direction of the club.
While the Raiders under owner Mark Davis have seen the value of the franchise go from $2.9 billion in 2019 to $10.3 billion in 2026, according to Forbes, the hard times associated with one of the NFL’s most iconic brands have continued unabated since the move.
With a 4-4 record in their seventh season in Las Vegas, the Raiders are 43-66 since the move, with one winning season in 2021 (10-7 and a wild card loss in the playoffs). They’ve had six head coaches and six general managers, not all that different from their 25-year second run in Oakland, which had 12 different head coaches (including Jon Gruden twice) and only four teams with records above .500.
Much has changed in the organization since its departure. Executives Marc Badain and Dan Ventrelle, who played key roles in the move to Las Vegas, are no longer with the organization.
There’s a new president in Sandra Douglass Morgan, who has roots in Las Vegas and experience in gaming. Davis has retained controlling interest while selling stakes to new owners, including former Patriots and Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady.
In terms of the economic bottom line, the Raiders have never been healthier. On the field, it’s been more of the same.
During an interview last May, Davis, who could not be reached for comment this week, acknowledged he had “failed” in terms of producing a winning team.
Die-hard Raiders fan Jenny Hamilton, with some of her autographed Raiders memorabilia at her home in Livermore, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. Hamilton has been a Raiders fan since she was 4 years old. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)
Die-hard Raiders fan Jenny Hamilton, with some of her autographed Raiders memorabilia at her home in Livermore, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. Hamilton has been a Raiders fan since she was 4 years old. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)
Jenny Hamilton, a Livermore resident and a member of the steering committee who works with the club on its annual “Commitment to Excellence” function, still feels the sting of a chaotic final game against Jacksonville.
“There are days when you love them and days when they break your heart,” Hamilton said. “That was a very rough time, watching people pull up their seats and take them away when they left.”
Hamilton grew up in Santa Rosa, near the Raiders’ old training camp site at the El Rancho Tropicana (1963-84) and worked for the organization from 2003 through 2011 in Oakland. She is hopeful the latest coach, Klint Kubiak, can get the Raiders on the right track.
The Raiders opened this season 3-0, then lost three straight before beating the New York Jets on the road last week.
“I’m beyond impressed with the camaraderie and the coaching,” Hamilton said.
Wayne Deboe, of Castro Valley, was a season-ticket holder starting in Year 1 at the Coliseum in 1966 and attended games at Frank Youell Field, a rickety facility on what is now the site of Laney College.
As head of the Oakland Raiders Booster Club for the last 18 years, his allegiance is unwavering, although he’ll take a wait-and-see approach in terms of future success.
“It remains to be seen because we’ve gone through so many changes,” Deboe said. “I’m with them all the way, but we’ve been through so many coaches and general managers you just hope for the best.”
Gilbert Morin, the Chief Executive Officer of the Raider Drive Booster Club based in San Jose, believes the intensity of the rivalry between the 49ers and Raiders has dissipated over time.
“It doesn’t have the same feel. The older folks would still love to have bragging rights because they live here and have to deal with Niner fans, but it’s not what it used to be,” Morin said.
None of the Raiders booster club members contacted were planning on attending the game, citing ticket prices. StubHub listed tickets in the outer reaches selling for more than $350 to over $1,000 in the lower bowl.
Which doesn’t mean Raider fans won’t find a way in. They were conspicuous by their presence in 1982 at Candlestick Park in their first game as the Los Angeles Raiders, a 23-17 win by the Raiders in the debut of Marcus Allen. And again at Candlestick in 1988, a 9-3 win with Kyle Shanahan’s father, Mike, as the Raiders coach.
In the Raiders’ only regular-season game at Levi’s, they were drubbed 34-3 in 2018, falling to 1-7 under Gruden in a roster-rebuild year. With fans well lubricated on a Thursday night, postgame brawls resulted in 32 arrests.
(The preseason series was suspended following fan violence at Candlestick in 2011, but resumed in 2021 without serious problems.)
Morin is hopeful the two sides will get along Sunday, and attributes violence to younger “power drinkers” to whom the actual football game is secondary to over-indulgence.
One thing that can’t be replicated, Morin believes, is the game day (or night) feel of a game at the Coliseum.
“In Oakland, it wasn’t manufactured,” Morin said. “It just happened. The A’s are gone, the Warriors went across the Bay. But I can’t stay mad at the Raiders.”
Zepeda isn’t expecting great things from the Raiders. For now, he’ll settle for good.
“If you’d have told us we’d be 4-4 after eight games, we’d be happy,” Zepeda said. “But we won three in a row and hopes got sky-high. But this is an actual rebuild, and it’s going to take a few years. It’s not going to happen overnight.”
Jerry McDonald covered the Raiders for the Bay Area News Group from 1995 through 2019.