Could the City of Oakland get a fresh set of downs in its antitrust lawsuit against the Raiders and the NFL over the team's move to Las Vegas?
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The city asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the suit in a filing last week, challenging a December ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that the legal challenge lacked antitrust standing.
Oakland first sued the Raiders in 2018, claiming more than $240 million in damages and losses of "significant tax and other income." The suit didn’t seek to stop the Raiders from moving, which the NFL owners voted 31-1 to approve in 2017.
A federal judge dismissed an amended complaint in May 2020 after ruling the city had failed to improve its case following a dismissal the previous year.
In a March 10 filing by attorney Thomas Goldstein and the City Attorney's Office, Oakland claimed the NFL is "an unambiguous cartel" with rules that "explicitly restrict the supply of new teams to prospective cities" by requiring a three-fourths majority of the league’s owners to approve admitting or relocating a team.
When Oakland "was unable to meet the cartel's demands," attorneys wrote, "the NFL moved the Raiders to Las Vegas."
The NFL "shared directly and indirectly" in "the windfall" stemming from the Raiders' move to Las Vegas, the city argued. The 31 other teams received a share of the franchise's $378 million relocation fee, and Nevada’s $750 million public subsidy to build Las Vegas’ $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium increased the market price for NFL stadiums in negotiations and franchise valuations.
Oakland's attorneys noted "the Raiders' enterprise value doubled to more than $3 billion" because "of the new luxury stadium and Nevada's $750 million public subsidy." They wrote that Oakland "was left owning an empty stadium and has suffered tens of millions of dollars in lost economic value and revenue" since the Raiders decamped from the Oakland Coliseum.
Neither Goldstein nor City Attorney Barbara Parker's office responded to KCBS Radio’s emailed request for comment prior to publication. The filing was docketed on Monday, and the NFL and its teams, each of which was named in the suit, have until April 13 to respond.
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