As the Raiders prepare to move to the land of gambling, their current home could be placing a different sort of bet.
Via Daniel Kaplan of SportsBusiness Journal, lawyer Jim Quinn suggested possible litigation during a rally in Oakland aimed at keeping pro football in town.
“We will look at all legal options,” Quinn said. “There may be some legal claims that can be asserted.”
One possibility would be to try to retain the team’s name, colors, and records, like Cleveland did when the Browns moved to Baltimore in 1996. It seems unlikely that owner Mark Davis would make that kind of concession without a fight.
It’s also unlikely that the NFL would commit to giving an expansion franchise to Oakland at a time when no one is suggesting that it would make sense to grow the NFL beyond its current collection of 32 franchises, which has been in place since the Texans joined the league in 2002.