Coliseum director 'cautiously optimistic' Raiders will play 2019 in Oakland

The executive director of the board that oversees the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum is "cautiously optimistic" that the venue will reach a one-year agreement with the Oakland Raiders.

Scott McKibben, who also serves as the lead negotiator for the board, added that a lease could be ironed out within the next week.

"I am cautiously optimistic that I believe that we will get a deal done, yes," he told Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The Raiders are currently homeless after their previous contract with the Coliseum expired. Team owner Mark Davis has said he wants to keep the Raiders in Oakland for the 2019 season before moving to Las Vegas permanently in 2020.

"The next step for me is I will get back to the Raiders, and I will discuss with (Raiders president) Marc (Badain) what exactly we discussed," McKibben added after Friday's board meeting.

"Like any other deal or negotiation, we will hammer down to the shorthairs. If we reach a complete and full agreement, then we'll move forward, do a contract, and at that time, we would have a meeting ... where we call (members) back for a formal approval."

The Raiders have played in the Coliseum since 1995. Their stadium in Las Vegas won't be ready to house the team until 2020, so a premature move is out of the question.

The club has also looked into the possibility of sharing Levi's Stadium in nearby Santa Clara with the San Francisco 49ers during 2019, and examined other regional sites in case it can't strike a deal with the Coliseum.

Tensions between the Raiders and Oakland escalated in December when the city filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the franchise over its pending departure to Sin City.