The Raiders pulled their $7.5 million offer to the city of Oakland for use of the Oakland Coliseum for next season, team president Marc Badain said Wednesday. But Badain and owner Mark Davis wouldn’t rule out Oakland as a possible option.
In fact, they didn’t rule out any city as reporters threw out names of potential one-year landing spots.
“We do not have any answer on where we’re going to play next year,” Badain said. “We made an offer of $7.5 million in rent to the city, and that’s now off the table. We have a number of options, and when we have an answer we’ll share it with you.”
Davis repeatedly declared “all options are open” when asked about various cities, including San Diego, Oakland, Santa Clara, San Antonio and somewhere in Nevada.
Davis did mention a reluctance to play on the turf in San Antonio’s Alamodome.
“I’m not really a fan of that,” Davis said, “but, again, I’m not ruling anything out. I’m just giving you my opinion.”
The city of Oakland filed suit against the Raiders, the other 31 franchises and the NFL concerning the team’s announced move to Las Vegas in 2020. It leaves the team homeless for 2019 for now.
“I’ve got two words for the lawsuit, and I used them the other day,” Davis said. “One is meritless and the other the attorneys will understand, and it’s malicious. I’ll leave it at, and I’ll let the attorneys do all the work.”
For scheduling purposes, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league needs an answer by “early January or February.”
“I know Mark has expressed that he’d like to be in Oakland,” Goodell said.