Oakland is losing its football team, but isn’t going down without a few parting shots.
Kimberly Veklerov of the San Francisco Chronicle reports the city of Oakland has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the NFL and each of the league’s teams challenging the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas. The lawsuit doesn’t ask the Raiders to stick around, but the city requests compensation for hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.
“The Raiders’ illegal move lines the pockets of NFL owners and sticks Oakland, its residents, taxpayers and dedicated fans with the bill,” said City Attorney Barbara Parker in a released statement. “The purpose of this lawsuit is to hold the defendants accountable and help to compensate Oakland for the damages of the defendants’ unlawful actions have caused and will cause to the people of Oakland.”
Dang, those are some strong words. If you’d like to read more of them, you can read the entire lawsuit here.
I was strolling through a Las Vegas casino when news of this broke and the first thing that came to mind was how this could possibly impact the Bears. After all, the team is scheduled to play a road game against the Raiders next season. A lawsuit like this could be a precursor to the team leaving Oakland after the 2018 season, which could in turn impact the 2019 NFL schedule.
With that in mind, Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reached out to Raiders President Marc Badain to ask if the lawsuit would push the team out of Oakland after the 2018 season, but he declined to comment:
Raiders team president Marc Badain declined comment when asked whether federal antitrust lawsuit against NFL and all 32 clubs conclusively means franchise won't play in Oakland next season Development certainly doesn't facilitate that arrangement. Stadium lease to expire in 2019.
— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) December 11, 2018
Sometimes a no comment speaks volumes. I mean, it’s not difficult to imagine the Raiders’ Christmas Eve home finale against the Denver Broncos getting ugly if a certain segment of fans shows up knowing it’s definitely the team’s last home game in Oakland.
The Raiders’ new Las Vegas home isn’t scheduled to open until 2020 and I can’t imagine UNLV’s home stadium is a realistic (or feasible, or attractive) option. And even though we’re living in the moment with this Bears team, we’ll keep an eye out on what the league and team does with the Raiders because the future isn’t all that far away.