Oakland Throws a Block at DOJ Bid to Weigh in on Antitrust Claims Over Raiders Move

Lawyers for the City of Oakland are crying foul that antitrust lawyers at the Department of Justice

are attempting to back the National Football League in the city’s lawsuit over the Raiders’

upcoming relocation to Las Vegas.

The city’s lawyers at Berg & Androphy and Pearson, Simon & Warshaw and in the City Attorney’s

office Monday fired back with an objection claiming that the federal government had no interest

at stake in the lawsuit and that the Antitrust Division filing came too late in the game.

…

“The DOJ’s position would allow professional sports teams, like the Oakland Raiders, to reap the

taxpayer-financed benefits derived from the prospects of tax revenues, but then claim immunity

from liability when their unlawful conduct injures the host cities that provided those benefits,” the

city’s lawyers wrote.