It turns out the Oakland Raiders might be playing in Oakland, after all.
Less than a week after San Francisco's mayor voiced opposition to the Raiders using her city as a temporary home, the team has resumed negotiations with Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum officials to remain in town for the 2019 season, as reported by KGO-TV's Larry Beil.
Oakland City Attorney Barbara J. Parker announced in December that the city was filing a federal lawsuit against the Raiders over the organization's "boycott" of Oakland as a host city, infusing more drama into the Raiders' planned relocation to Las Vegas in 2020. That led the Raiders to seek refuge at Levi's Stadium, the San Francisco 49ers' Santa Clara venue, or Oracle Park, home of MLB's San Francisco Giants. But with both of those options unlikely, it appears the Coliseum is back in play.
That doesn't mean Oakland is welcoming the Raiders back with open arms, however.
According to NBC Bay Area's Raj Mathai, City Council President Rebecca Kaplan said that "if the Raiders wanted to offer us a huge increased lease payment -- much more than we previously discussed -- in exchange for dropping the lawsuit, we might be willing to consider it."
