OAKLAND — A Hail Mary attempt to keep the Raiders in Oakland moved forward Tuesday as county officials gave the go-ahead to negotiate with Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott, and the Oakland City Council followed suit Tuesday night.

Lott’s proposal is probably Oakland’s last shot at keeping its storied franchise from leaving again, but even if officials sign off, questions remain whether it will pass muster with the Raiders and the NFL owners, who will decide the team’s ultimate fate. The NFL’s point person on stadium plans indicated in an interview with USA Today that he was unimpressed with the Lott plan.

Star-studded hearings Tuesday morning and evening featured prominent NFL and NBA players and drew impassioned support for the plan from Oakland fans, as well as concern from two county supervisors over how to handle the existing debt at the Coliseum site stemming from efforts to lure the team back from Los Angeles more than 20 years ago.

One theme was clear — everyone from fans to public officials say the team belongs in Oakland, which it left in 1982 for Los Angeles before returning 13 years later.

“I want the Raiders to stay,” said Hall of Famer and former Los Angeles Raiders running back Marcus Allen, who called Oakland the “heart and soul of the Raider Nation.” “If this team does not remain here, there will be a black hole here in the city of Oakland. We can’t let that happen,” he said.

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The City Council at about 10:15 p.m. voted 7-0, with Abel Guillen abstaining, to approve a term sheet with Lott’s investment group and enter into deeper negotiations over the details of the stadium plan during the next 60 days.

Both Councilwoman Annie Campbell Washington and Guillen said several residents urged them to vote no.

“I am voting tonight to support this deal because of what I have in front of me,” Campbell Washington said. “I wanted to share that there is deep concern in the community about this deal and the amount of money we are putting at risk. Our residents are feeling very squeezed.”

“For myself there are too many unknowns for me to get comfortable on this proposal,” Guillen said. “I hope as this moves forward I can get comfortable. Right now, there are too many holes in this for me to support it.”

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors approved the plan 3-1, with Supervisor Wilma Chan abstaining and Keith Carson casting the lone no vote, saying he supported Lott’s plan but was concerned about where the nearly $200 million would come from to repay outstanding debt on the Coliseum given all the county’s other commitments.

Lott, his business partner Rodney Peete and the Fortress Investment Group have proposed a plan to keep the Raiders from fleeing to Las Vegas, where lawmakers are luring Raiders owner Mark Davis with promises of a new $1.9 billion stadium. The current Coliseum is considered one of the league’s least adequate playing spaces.

Time is running short. NFL owners are expected to meet as early as January to vote on the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas. Three-quarters of the owners — 24 of the league’s 32 — must approve the relocation.

Representatives from the Lott group, the NFL and the Raiders, with the exception of Davis, met informally Monday. With his focus on Las Vegas, Davis has turned down meetings with Lott and local officials in recent months.

The NFL’s point man on stadium issues, Eric Grubman, said the deal was too reminiscent of the failed plan by Floyd Kephart — Oakland’s previous designated stadium developer — and complained that it inserted the Lott group as an unnecessary middleman into the negotiations between the city and the Raiders, USA Today reported.

“I think it’s a mistake to add third parties and fourth parties to what really should be a two-party negotiation,” Grubman, the NFL’s executive vice president, told USA Today. “In this instance, you put someone who needs to profit and you may put other motivations in there. The core task is to find something that works for the Raiders and the community, and when you put developers in or other third parties, then you’re going to have there the things that are important to them in the conversation. And that’s what happened two years ago and one year ago, and I think that’s what happening now.”

Grubman told this newspaper in an email, “I think intentions of the public officials are good. They are trying.”

The Lott plan calls for a 55,000-seat stadium for the team, plus offices, hotels, a transit hub and possibly residences. Sources in Oakland said the $1.3 billion Coliseum development would be financed with $200 million each from the city and the NFL, $300 million from the Raiders and the rest from Lott’s investment group. The city’s share would consist of $200 million in bond money toward infrastructure improvements, which would have no effect on the general fund, according to city officials. The land would likely be sold or leased to the Lott group, but those details have not yet been worked out.

Multiple speakers at the Oakland meeting asked for community benefits in the East Oakland neighborhood in the shadow of the Coliseum. Lott pledged to do so.

“Ronnie once said to me they were about not just building a stadium but changing a community,” Councilman Larry Reid said. “This is probably the most incredible opportunity to help us to do that.”

The proposal states that the city and county are responsible for repaying $103 million in outstanding debt at the Coliseum and $81 million in outstanding debt at Oracle Arena, both from previous renovations. On Tuesday, Assistant City Administrator Claudia Cappio said the county expressed willingness to pay off the debt so the Coliseum could be demolished and the city would repay the county over time.

“I don’t know what the numbers pencil out to be but I’m hopeful,” Councilwoman Desley Brooks said. “We can ill afford to have the debt we had on both the Coliseum and the arena.”

Still, most who spoke Tuesday fervently pleaded with the supervisors to approve the plan.

“If you are an Oakland Raiders fan, your heart is in your throat right now,” said Raiders fan Ray Perez, aka Dr. Death, in an impassioned speech.