49ers, Raiders should share stadium niners

A rendering of the 49ers stadium design lines a wall at the team's New Stadium Preview Center in Santa Clara, Calif., on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011. A rendering of the 49ers stadium design lines a wall at the team's New Stadium Preview Center in Santa Clara, Calif., on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011. Photo: Noah Berger, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Noah Berger, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 19 Caption Close 49ers, Raiders should share stadium 1 / 19 Back to Gallery

Every drive to Santa Clara brings all those cranes into towering, majestic view. Every visit makes it more and more real - the 49ers are actually building a shiny, brand-new, 21st century stadium.

And, every time, the thought surfaces: The Raiders also should play there.

This is not groundbreaking news, we know, but the long-simmering idea of the 49ers and Raiders sharing a stadium remains stuffed in the background. It's time both teams set aside their pride, listen to their practical side and seriously talk about making this happen.

It was encouraging, sort of, when NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sounded open to the possibility during his appearance in Oakland last week. Goodell was asked about two teams playing in the Santa Clara stadium, and he struck a delicate balance between common sense and respect for Oakland.

"The priority is what the community and the team work out," Goodell said. "I think it's a great benefit that there's a stadium across the bay that's going to be a state-of-the-art facility. That's terrific.

"So that's an option if this community and the Raiders choose that. But that's a decision they have to make."

In a perfect world, the Raiders would build a stadium in Oakland, ideally where the Coliseum sits. The site is centrally located and obviously has great access to public transportation. The Raiders, in all their rough-around-the-edges splendor, fit Oakland - and the city deserves to keep its tradition-rich team.

But let's be realistic here: Kenny Stabler will come back and fling passes in Silver and Black before another stadium sprouts in Oakland.

Plus, it's wildly illogical to even contemplate building two outrageously expensive NFL stadiums in these economic times. Cost estimates for the 49ers' project have soared north of $1 billion, and that's for a stadium in which the team will play no more than 12 games per season.

Last we checked, the calendar year includes at least 365 days - and there aren't enough college bowl games, concerts and motocross events to fill the gap.

Goodell said the league is open to contributing $200 million to a new Raiders stadium, as it did for the 49ers, but it's hard to picture that really happening. The only other two-team market, New York, recently completed one $1.6 billion stadium - and the Giants and Jets both play there.

Santa Clara officials have said their stadium was designed for two home teams, with the necessary surplus of locker rooms. The city harbors ambitions of finding a second team, an entirely logical vision given its hefty investment.

The Raiders, for their part, remain mostly mum. Owner Mark Davis spoke briefly to NFL.com during league meetings in October, and he indicated the team had no plans to share a stadium the way the Jets and Giants did in their old arrangement.

The previous building in New Jersey was known as Giants Stadium, and the Jets clearly weren't equal co-tenants. That's not the case in Met Life Stadium - where, through the magic of technology, the dominant colors are red-and-blue for Giants games and green-and-white for Jets games.

Clearly, the 49ers are not crazy about working silver-and-black hues into their fancy new home. As 49ers President Jed York told Chronicle columnist Ann Killion last month, "We've moved forward. There haven't been any detailed conversations at all."

Still, if you're a Raiders fan living in the Bay Area, you should be rooting for those conversations to happen. Santa Clara is an infinitely better result than Los Angeles, and rumors of Davis flirting with L.A. continue to swirl.

The big thing to remember: There's no stadium rising into the sky in Los Angeles. Or Oakland. The first shovel disappeared into the ground in Santa Clara in April, and eight months later, the clear outline of an NFL stadium is taking shape, on track to open for the 2014 season.

Goodell does not seem inclined to force a two-team, one-stadium arrangement, but he's the only one with the clout and interest to push this along. Maybe it makes too much sense.