Feel the Power of the Dark Side

Photo: Bleacher Report

When Willie Brown, a columnist in the San Francisco Chronicle, called for the Oakland Raiders to be brought to San Francisco, he fired a very real shot across the bow of Raiders Fans.

Response from the Raider Nation was swift. Decked in full game day regalia, fans marched on franchise headquarters in Downtown Oakland, cheering to keep the team on the Bright Side of the Bay. Mark Davis answered by coming down into the street, into the heart of the crowd. Accepting a t-shirt with the words “Forever Oakland” on it, he held it up, and said four words: “I love you guys.”

With all due respect your Honor, if you think those same fans are going to follow the Raiders across the bridge to the hand-me-down city of their archenemies, you’ve been spending too much time in Haight-Ashbury.The Black Hole would rather burn the franchise and every affiliated piece of paraphernalia to the ground before paying bridge toll.

You want another sports team to replace the one you priced out of your own city? Use your 100 million dollars in sports stadium bond money to bring in a Major League Soccer team—the San Francisco Fog or FC San Francisco.

MLS is growing year in, year out, breaking attendance records every season. Plus, with a state of the art soccer facility, sellout world-class exhibitions, even World Cup and Olympic games, could be hosted. But you have as much a chance of stealing the Raiders as you do receiving an “I miss you” postcard from Alex Smith. In fact, I can’t think of a more effective way for the NFL to alienate two major fan bases at once and lose substantial market share.

Sorry Willie, you must have Oakland Raiders fans and San Francisco 49ers of Santa Clara fans, confused.

One team has the most dedicated fan base in the NFL, who BARTs and sells out game after game, hell or high water. The other is league-famous for the most ostentatiously false chant in football history and the now worst gameday commute in the NFL. Of course, I’m over-exaggerating. Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara is only a mere hour and change away. Oh sorry, that’s without gameday traffic. Or the gas money you're shilling out. Who’s got it better than you? Nobody!

Honestly, I don’t care how far away that stadium is because I’ll never go to a 49ers game in yonder Valley, unless it’s to watch my hometown team, the Oakland Raiders, sack the Google Glass off Colin Kaepernick’s face.

Hey, don’t be pissed with me San Francisco 49ers of Santa Clara fans, save your ire for the owners of your beloved team.

They took you, the fan base that built, ticket by ticket, one of the most iconic football dynasties in history, for granted. They abandoned you, and now they expect you to drive twice as much and pay more for privilege of doing so. Face it: it’s not like your team has any loyalty, so why should you?All they care about is the money. They’re gold diggers, after all.

They’ll sell more corporate boxes to the big money in the South Bay, that’s what they’re after. And since the new stadium is next to the moneyed enclaves in the South, you can expect your ticket prices to go nowhere but up, out of reach of the very base that made the team what it is today.

You, the San Francisco faithful, were sold out, betrayed. Are you listening San Francisco 49ers of Santa Clara fans? Let the Hate flow through you. Come to the Dark Side. This season, hop on BART to the Coliseum (and yes, it’s as convenient as you think it is). Bring your Red and Gold and burn it before the game with us. Rise from the ashes reborn in the Silver and Black. Don’t be scared—you might even like it. It’s fun to be bad.

After all, what do you have to lose?