With The First Pick
Fansided

Can Oakland keep The Raiders Name?

By Gabriel Romero

May 31, 2017; Paradise, NV, USA: General overall view of billboard that reads "The Raiders Are Coming" at the construction site of Las Vegas Stadium. The domed stadium will be the home of the Las Vegas Raiders and the UNLV Rebels football team. It is located on about 62 acres west of Mandalay Bay at Russell Road and Hacienda Avenue and between Polaris Avenue and Dean Martin Drive, just west of Interstate 15. Construction of the $1.9 billion stadium is planned to begin in 2017 and be completed for the 2020 NFL season. NFL owners voted 31-1 to allow Raiders owner Mark Davis to relocate the franchise from Oakland to Las Vegas. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
May 31, 2017; Paradise, NV, USA: General overall view of billboard that reads "The Raiders Are Coming" at the construction site of Las Vegas Stadium. The domed stadium will be the home of the Las Vegas Raiders and the UNLV Rebels football team. It is located on about 62 acres west of Mandalay Bay at Russell Road and Hacienda Avenue and between Polaris Avenue and Dean Martin Drive, just west of Interstate 15. Construction of the $1.9 billion stadium is planned to begin in 2017 and be completed for the 2020 NFL season. NFL owners voted 31-1 to allow Raiders owner Mark Davis to relocate the franchise from Oakland to Las Vegas. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

The Oakland Raiders will be moving to Las Vegas in the year 2019. Will they be taking the Raiders name with them?

When the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore in 1995 they were forced to change their name. The city of Cleveland fought to keep the name of the Browns. So the city and owner Art Modell came to a compromise. Cleveland got to keep the name and the Baltimore Ravens were born. Cleveland have a football team name but no team.

In the year 1999, Cleveland got their football team back. The Browns were back in the NFL and the city got that bad taste of abandonment out of their mouth. The City of Oakland could try and take a page out of Cleveland’s playbook.

In February it was announced that The Raiders would be moving to Las Vegas. Leaving the city after Oakland refused to use taxpayer money to build a new stadium. Declining the stadium deal was in Oakland’s best interest.

The City will still be paying renovations to the current coliseum after The Raiders leave to Las Vegas. Oakland didn’t need to mortgage the cities future for a football team that left them once already.

The team name really means a lot to the city. Now a coalition of fans, businesses and city leaders are planning to sue The Raiders to keep The Raiders name in Oakland.

New York sports attorney James Quinn is on the case and made a statement:

"“I assure you that we’re going to take a long hard look and do everything that we can to ensure that, in fact, we continue to have NFL football — Raider NFL football,”"

One of the reasons Cleveland got to keep the name was Art Modell and the city reached a settlement because the team was going to be breaking the lease. So Cleveland got to keep the name they wanted. They got their team back four years later.

No one is going to mistake Mark Davis for Art Modell. We will never know what Al Davis would have thought of the move to Las Vegas. We do know that The Raiders were his life. The lawsuit seems like a last glimmer of hope for Oakland. It is hard to see Oakland, the NFL and Davis finding a compromise to keep The Raiders name in Oakland.

It seems like a long shot to win the lawsuit but it has happened once before.

Home/Las Vegas Raiders