Oakland is fighting back. Tuesday the city announced it was suing the Raiders and the NFL to recover damages from the team’s move to Las Vegas.
The suit claims that Oakland never had a chance despite bending over backward to try to convince Raiders’ owner Mark Davis to stay.
When the Raiders leave Oakland the city will lose revenue and taxpayers will be left with an $80 million stadium debt from 1995, back when the team moved from Los Angeles.
“The city of Oakland has made some huge investments in the Raiders over the years and we’re going to try to get that investment back,” said Jim Quinn, lead attorney of Berg and Androphy.
The suit argues the NFL and team owners acted in concert with Raiders owner Mark Davis to disregard the city’s efforts to keep the team in Oakland. It’s what fan groups like “Forever Oakland” have argued.
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In 1984 a California Federal Court forced the NFL to adopt “relocation policies” to make sure teams follow very specific rules when determining if they should move to a new city.
“How’s the fan base, are you making money, what’s the size of the market? In each instance allowing Oakland to move to Las Vegas violated those criteria,” added Quinn.
Oakland, he says, came up with the offer that Davis wanted, but in the end was never considered.
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