Oakland Raiders Sellout Every Home Game This Season: Fan’s View

And Sunday makes eight. Eight sellouts out of eight home games for the Oakland Raiders. The team announced the January 1 game against the San Diego Chargers is sold out, which makes 2011 the first season the team has gone without a television blackout since they returned to Oakland from Los Angeles in 1995.

While I think eight sellouts is great, and shows the support the team has from local fans, the issue of the stadium remains. The Raiders play in the Oakland Coliseum, now known as the O.co Coliseum after the stadium's website sponsor, Overstock.com (which now also goes by o.co). Opened in 1966, the stadium is almost 50 years old and even the last renovation was seventeen years ago in 1995. The cash-strapped city of Oakland has been unable to build a new stadium and the team has been unwilling to share a stadium with the San Francisco 49ers. As the 49ers stadium project is moving forward, perhaps after the passing of Raiders' longtime owner Al Davis, the new Raiders' ownership (led by Davis' son) will have a different view. I think the shared stadium makes sense for the Raiders if they want to stay in Northern California.

I still wonder if the team will move back to Los Angeles to play in one of the two competing stadium projects, both vying for a team. AEG, the company behind the proposed Farmers Field project in downtown Los Angeles has already confirmed the Raiders were one of the five teams they've already met with about the move to L.A.

While the team sold out all eight home games they didn't win all eight, of the seven played as I write this article, the team is 3-4 at home, while doing much better on the road (5-3). Raiders coach Hue Jackson confirmed the power of Raider Nation and how he thinks the team needs the fans this week, a must-win for the Silver and Black. Commenting about the fans, Coach Jackson said: "They'll bring the noise and the passion. I expect them to be as loud as they've ever been, and we need a true 12th man this week."

Although born and raised with Eagles fans in Philadelphia, Freddy Sherman has always been a citizen of Raider Nation at heart. Since his dad got him a signed George Blanda football as child, to meeting Lyle Alzado in the 1980s, he hasn't looked back. Follow him on twitter @thefredsherman

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