Page One

Thanks to Jerry, Raiders make TV

Bay City News Service
Saturday September 16, 2000

Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown today accepted 1,000 tickets to Raider's Sunday home game that guarantee the game's broadcast on Bay Area television. 

“That's a lot of tickets,'' Brown said as he was handed several stacks of tickets held together by rubber bands during a ceremony near Lake Merritt. 

The tickets were bought and donated to the city by Mountain View-based Microsoft Web TV. The city, in turn, will distribute them to the city's children through recreation centers today. 

Under National Football League rules, home games that are not sold out 72 hours prior to the game are blacked out on local television screens.  

The Raiders have repeatedly said they were lured back to the city in 1995 by promises of sold-out crowds that never materialized.  

The team, Oakland and Alameda County are currently tangled in court.