For at least the past couple of weeks, all signs have pointed to a Raiders’ return to Oakland for one last season. With the sides having “meaningful and productive” talks since resuming negotiations late last week, a deal appears closer than ever.
“I will confirm that we, late last week, started sitting down and talking with the Raiders about the potential of a 2019 season deal,” Scott McKibben, executive director of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority, told via Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “In my view, the discussions have been meaningful and productive.”
The team’s lease expires Wednesday, McKibben told Gehlken.
The sides had agreed on terms that included $7.5 million in rent for 2019, but the Raiders withdrew from that extension when the city of Oakland filed suit against the NFL and its 32 teams.
The Raiders have considered several options and had an agreement with Oracle Park in San Francisco. The 49ers, though, refused to give up their territorial rights to allow the Raiders to play in San Francisco.