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By MARK ANDERSON | AP Sports Writer
COSTA MESA — The Pacific Ocean can be seen in the distance, Huntington Beach Pier is a short walk away and bars and restaurants crowd the city square.
Flying high above one such establishment is a half-Raiders, half-Dodgers flag.
Killarney’s Irish Pub on Sunday afternoons during the NFL season is packed with fans wearing silver and black. An emcee takes over the microphone, the Raiders’ theme song “The Autumn Wind” is played and all 15 TVs inside and the four outside are tuned to Las Vegas games.
“I’d say the environment here is pretty special,” Killarney’s general manager Clay Dale said. “Pun intended, it’s a very intoxicating environment.”
The Rams and Chargers call the Los Angeles area home, but the Raiders maintain a massive presence in the region. And the Raiders have returned to SoCal – for the next two weeks, anyway.
They have taken over the Chargers’ former training camp home in Costa Mesa, about a 20-minute drive from Killarney’s. But the Raiders, who played in Los Angeles from 1982-94 in between stints in Oakland, can’t tap into their Southern California fan base to generate in-person excitement as their players begin preseason practices Wednesday.
But because of NFL policy, the Raiders cannot promote their presence. No billboards. No newspaper ads or radio commercials. Las Vegas media outlets can cover camp, but the team is not allowed to invite L.A. or Orange County-based media outlets. Nor will practices be open to fans, though some VIPs, select season-ticket holders, sponsors and invited guests will be allowed into the Jack Hammett Sports Complex.
Since permanently relocating from St. Louis and San Diego, respectively, the Rams and Chargers share territorial marketing rights to the area.
“Every club has an exclusive home territory extending 75 miles in all directions from the exterior corporate borders of the city for which it holds a franchise,” per league policy. “If another club holds its preseason training camp within that exclusive territory then it cannot be marketed locally.”
Interestingly, there will be five NFL teams within 100 miles of each other during camp. The New Orleans Saints are holding theirs at UC Irvine, which hosted the Rams from 2016 to 2019 and 2021 to 2023. The Saints needed a new location during construction of a new cafeteria at their team complex. The Rams (Loyola Marymount), Chargers (El Segundo) and Dallas Cowboys (Oxnard) will be in L.A. County.
The Cowboys have been in Oxnard off and on since 2001, before the Rams and Chargers returned to the region, and were essentially grandfathered in with clearance for marketing and open practices.
Raiders owner Mark Davis shrugs off the territorial limitations for his team, saying the bigger point was being able to bond as a team, and that the club also considered its former training camp home in Napa.
“It would be nice if all the fans could be there, but, whatever,” Davis told ESPN. “The Chargers and Rams have that ability.”
First-year Raiders general manager Tom Telesco, who spent the previous 11 years as GM of the Chargers, helped facilitate the move to Costa Mesa.
“It’s a great setup, but it’s not all on one campus,” Davis said. “That’s something we’ve always had for our campuses. We’ve pretty much always had the hotels and the fields together, so this is a little bit of a work-around. But it’s going to be fantastic.”
Relocating camp from the team headquarters in Henderson, Nevada, represents a little bit of a homecoming for Coach Antonio Pierce.
He grew up a Raiders fan in nearby Compton.
“When the plane hit the tarmac, I smiled,” Pierce said. “It felt good to be home. I’m excited for our players to be here and enjoy some nice weather and be able to get away for a little bit.”
Pierce said the temperature was about 105 degrees when he left Las Vegas, about 30 degrees hotter than in Costa Mesa. The mild temperatures allow the Raiders to schedule practices at more advantageous times, and the team will work out at night when it returns to Nevada in mid-August.
This is Pierce’s first camp as a head coach, having been hired in the offseason after going 5-4 as the interim coach last season.
Pierce has some decisions to make, most notably at quarterback between Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew. He said there was no timeline on when to pick a starter, and both QBs are opening camp on essentially equal footing.
But this is what Pierce has dreamed of – being the one in charge.
He said not having fans and being away from family responsibilities for a couple of weeks allows the players to focus on the job at hand.
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“I think it would be really critical for our team to become the tightest unit possible,” Pierce said. “It’s all peaches and cream now. The sun’s bright. There are going to be some dark moments and dark days, and we’re going to have to be ready to go through some adversity together.”
Such adversity is hard to imagine just a short drive away during a laid-back Tuesday morning at Killarney’s. Raiders memorabilia is scattered throughout the pub, including a signed photo of Hall of Fame coach Tom Flores after the Super Bowl victory in the 1983 season and the 1984 schedule that proclaims “The World Champion Los Angeles Raiders.”
The Raiders left Southern California 30 years ago, but to some, they aren’t truly gone.
That’s evident on game days when the pub opens its doors at 8 a.m. There will be a line outside by 7:30 if the Raiders are playing one of the early games. All the seats are gone by 10 for an afternoon kickoff.
“I think for a lot of these people it’s a home away from home,” Dale said. “It’s a mini Black Hole. The Raiders have one of those fan bases that’s definitely a head above everyone else. It’s a cult following in a sense, but very proud to be Raiders fans.”