NFL, Raiders urge U.S. Supreme Court to nix suit over Las Vegas move

(Reuters) - The National Football League on Monday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to keep in place a ruling denying claims from the city of Oakland, California, that the Raiders football team's decision in 2017 to move to Las Vegas violated antitrust law.

The NFL's lawyers at Covington & Burling and attorneys for the Raiders at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer defended a December 2021 opinion by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld the dismissal of Oakland's lawsuit.

The San Francisco-based federal appeals court said the city had not shown it had legal "standing" to bring antitrust claims.

Oakland's lawyers had alleged that the NFL violated competition law in the league's refusal to expand beyond 32 teams and also in its decision to charge the Raiders a $378 million relocation fee that other teams received and divided up.

Attorneys for the league and Raiders told the Supreme Court in Monday's filing that the 9th Circuit "correctly concluded that [the] alleged injury to petitioner was both indirect and too speculative." The attorneys said Oakland failed to show that it would have kept the Raiders in the city, or acquired another team, in a competitive market.

Gregg Levy, counsel to the NFL, and a lawyer for the Raiders, Daniel Asimow of Arnold & Porter, did not immediately comment on Tuesday.

A lawyer for Oakland, Thomas Goldstein of the appellate firm Goldstein & Russell, did not immediately return a message seeking comment. The city is also represented by its in-house team and the firms Berg & Androphy and Pearson, Simon & Warshaw.

Oakland filed its case in 2018 against the NFL, Raiders and 31 other teams. The complaint sought $240 million in damages for alleged lost tax revenue and funds invested in the team's stadium, the Oakland Coliseum.

The lawsuit did not demand the return of the Raiders to Oakland, where the team first began playing in 1960.

Lawyers for Oakland argue in their Supreme Court petition that "losing any chance at an NFL team caused the city clear and direct economic harm, and that harm is not at all speculative given that Oakland already had a team."

Several friend-of-the-court briefs, including from a group of sports economists, were filed in support of Oakland's claims against the NFL and Raiders.

The case is City of Oakland v. Oakland Raiders, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 21-1243.

For Oakland: Thomas Goldstein of Goldstein & Russell

For NFL: Gregg Levy of Covington & Burling

For Raiders: Daniel Asimow of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer

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