By Robert Haugh

Earlier this month, the City of Oakland sued the Raiders for packing their bags and moving to Las Vegas. Oakland leaders say the team is leaving the city with $75-$95 million in debt for the O.Co Coliseum.

They’re suing the NFL team for $500 million in damages. Wow.

We wonder if Oakland leaders saw how the City of Santa Clara beat the 49ers recently in arbitration when the team tried to reduce its own rent by $170 million. Instead the City won an extra $10 million. That’s a net swing of $180 million for the Mission City!

Right now, the Raiders have a lease agreement to play at the Coliseum in 2018. And they will have a new stadium built for them in Sin City. But it won’t be ready until 2020. So they may need a place to play in 2019. Could that be Levi’s’ Stadium? It was built to house two NFL teams.

On the plus side, the Mission City will get a lot more revenue.

On the minus side, we’ll have Raiders fans driving into North Santa Clara for 10 games a year. Yikes!

But the chances of that happening don’t look real good. So North Santa Clarans don’t need to start making barricades and buying guard dogs.

Tim Kawakami is the Editor-in-Chief of the AthleticSF and a former Mercury News columnist. He knows Raiders owner Mark Davis and this situation really well.

Here’s what he thinks:

https://twitter.com/timkawakami/status/1037151122408914944

We’ll be keeping our eye on this situation and the lawsuit. If Oakland wins any money above the rent its scheduled to get in 2019, it’ll be a victory. Then, the lawsuit score will be:

Santa Clara/Oakland — 2

49ers/Raiders — 0