Oakland Mayor Schaaf toots new tune: a publicly funded stadium

Oakland Raiders fan Randy Wright from Benicia speaks with Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf as members of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's staff held a public hearing on the idea of the Raiders football team moving to southern California at the Paramount Theater in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, October 29, 2015. less Oakland Raiders fan Randy Wright from Benicia speaks with Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf as members of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's staff held a public hearing on the idea of the Raiders football team moving to ... more Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close Oakland Mayor Schaaf toots new tune: a publicly funded stadium 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who has been adamant that she does not support spending taxpayer dollars on a new stadium for the Raiders, had a different message for National Football League officials Wednesday.

The city, she told them in a presentation in New York, is analyzing the use of public bonds — or tax money — to finance a stadium.

The “lease revenue bonds” the city is looking into would be paid back with new revenue the city would generate from leasing the stadium back to the Raiders. While such a move doesn’t involve a direct subsidy by the city to build a stadium, it could leave taxpayers on the hook for the debt if the projected revenue didn’t materialize.

Schaaf, however, said that she has been advised that there is a way to set up the bond so that the city is not held liable, and that she would not support a financing plan if, in fact, the city was ultimately held responsible.

Oakland got into trouble in 1996 when it issued bonds to build the 11,000-seat “Mount Davis” — bonds that were supposed to be paid for with revenue from personal seat licenses. But the revenue was grossly overestimated because the Raiders failed to sell enough licenses. The result was that Oakland and Alameda County were left holding the bag — and to this day pay about $20 million in debt a year, debt expected to last until 2026.

At a news conference Thursday, Schaaf stuck to her promise not to spend a public cent and described her New York trip as a chance to show her “commitment and passion” to keeping the Raiders in Oakland.

In addition to public bonds, the mayor proposed using tax increment financing to bankroll a new stadium, and said these new tax dollars would come solely from the Raiders.

Such tools are “politically expedient,” said Vanderbilt University sports economist John Vrooman: They promise something for nothing, while ultimately passing the bills on to taxpayers.

The “economics on this is very clear,” said David Berri, an economics professor at Southern Utah University. “But if you are a politician, how do you tell your voters that you are not willing to ‘save’ their NFL team?”

At the news conference, Schaaf showed the PowerPoint presentation she made to the NFL, which included photos of decked-out Raiders fans, stadium renderings and charts to demonstrate what a hot football market Oakland is becoming. One chart noted that rents jumped in Oakland by 12.1 percent from January 2014 to January 2015 — more than they increased in San Francisco, which saw an 11.6 percent increase.

Another chart — to make the case that the Raiders could attract fans from San Francisco — boasted that it takes only 25 minutes to drive from San Francisco to Oakland, much shorter than the hour’s driving time to the 49ers’ new Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. The charts didn’t say anything about the Bay Bridge’s notorious traffic jams — and Schaaf, ironically, was 45 minutes late to her own news conference in Oakland when she got stuck on the Bay Bridge.

Schaaf told reporters Thursday that she was unfazed by the Raiders’ and San Diego Chargers’ announcement — hours before her presentation to the NFL — that they had gotten new ammunition for their bid to share a stadium in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson.

“We are not letting the story of Los Angeles distract us,” Schaaf said, when asked whether she was intimidated by the new would-be chair of the Carson development team: Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger.

Unlike her counterparts in St. Louis and San Diego — the other cities that stand to lose football teams to Los Angeles — Schaaf did not roll out plans for a publicly funded stadium. She went to New York with a sales pitch about Oakland and no concrete plan for a sports venue.

Schaaf said that NFL officials were genial to her presentation. She was accompanied by Councilman Larry Reid and an investor of the Blackstone Group, who had come to “validate that Oakland is a good market.”

“We have made some fumbles,” the mayor said, acknowledging that the city wasted years courting developers who didn’t pan out, and that she is now feeling the pressure of the league deadlines.

Teams that want to move to new markets can send their applications to the NFL beginning Jan. 1. The league’s 32 team owners are expected to decide, sometime early next year, which team or teams get to relocate. The Raiders, Chargers and St. Louis Rams are discussing moving to the lucrative Los Angeles area, which has been without an NFL team since the Rams and Raiders left two decades ago.

Weeks remain for Schaaf to come to an agreement with Raiders owner Mark Davis, who told Schaaf his preference is to stay in Oakland, but who also has his own ideas of what a “Coliseum City” should look like.

Whereas city officials envision a large corridor of hotels, housing and tech offices that would generate tax revenue for the city, Davis wants a large parking lot.

“One thing he is very passionate about is the tailgating experience for Raiders fans,” Schaaf said.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: rswan@sfchronicle.com, Twitter: @rachelswan