Oakland

Oakland Leaders Consider Lawsuit Against Raiders

City leaders say there's still $90 million owed from the deal taxpayers agreed to when the team was lured back from LA

The next fight for the Raiders may be in a courtroom, as the city of Oakland is considering a lawsuit against the Silver and Black.

The issue: a $90 million stadium commitment by taxpayers.

The Oakland City Council was meeting in a private session Tuesday afternoon. It is looking at giving Raiders owner Mark Davis an ultimatum: Stay or pay back every dollar spent on a stadium deal in the fight to keep the team here.

NFL owners on Monday voted to approve the Raiders' move to Las Vegas, where a stadium plan and funding are in place.

But some aren't giving up on the Raiders staying in Oakland. Councilman Noel Gallo said even though the team got the necessary votes from NFL owners to move to Las Vegas, the Raiders don't have the legal right to leave.

"Everybody wants to leave town to make a dollar and leave the rest of us here in Oakland paying for their debt," Gallo said. "When the Raiders came here from LA, the voters voted for a $220 million bond to keep them here to build their stadium. We're still paying $90 million of that."

Gallo wants Davis to pay back every dollar the city invested to bring them back to Oakland from LA.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf agreed, insisting the city bent over backwards to keep the team.

"What bothered me the most is they just need to be honest," Schaaf said. "Oakland had a plan, Vegas had a plan. They choose Las Vegas."

Schaaf said the city feels betrayed.

"The Raiders are part of of our city's identity, our culture, our legacy; no other football team brings that," she said.

Some Raiders fans, however, say it's not the team but the city who dropped the ball.

"They should have had a stadium; then they would have been here for years," Patrick Secrease said.

The Raiders expect to play in their new Las Vegas stadium starting in 2020.

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