By Danny Pollock / Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES --The Oakland Raiders and NFL are waging a billion-dollar legal battle over who controls one of the most lucrative sports markets in the country.
At the center is Raiders owner Al Davis, who moved the Raiders from Oakland to Los Angeles in 1982, then back to Oakland in 1995.
Davis insists that the right to the Los Angeles football market still belongs to him. He says the NFL forced him out of town by interfering with his plan to build a new stadium at Hollywood Park in suburban Inglewood.
If the NFL wants Los Angeles back, he says, it will have to pay him more than $1 billion for the privilege and for the revenue he says he lost.
Los Angeles -- the second-largest TV market in the country -- has been without an NFL team since the Raiders and the Rams both left in 1995. In 1999, two groups of investors tried to land an expansion team but lost out to a group in Houston.
The NFL has no plans to expand beyond its current 32 teams, which means Los Angeles' only hope for a franchise would be one willing to move here.
Davis prevailed over the NFL in 1983 in an antitrust lawsuit that let the Raiders come to Los Angeles in the first place and cleared the way for other teams that want to pick up and move. Davis is seen by some in sports as a renegade who puts his financial interests ahead of the league.
Among those watching the Los Angeles case closely are other NFL owners.
"They're watching the case with interest because they believe the case is a sham and a counterfeit," NFL spokesman Joe Browne said. "Some believe it's a shakedown by the Raiders of the league and other clubs."
One question raised by the case is whether Davis is angling to move the Raiders back to Los Angeles.
Davis declined to comment on that possibility at the start of the trial. But as part of a separate lawsuit against the city of Oakland, he asked a judge to let him out of a lease requiring the team to play at the Oakland Coliseum for 10 more years. That request was denied.
Thus far in the trial, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and two team owners have testified about the NFL's dealings with the Raiders. The Raiders also have provided a detailed inside look at all the potential benefits of moving a team, from the value of a market such as Los Angeles to the revenue generated by luxury suites and naming rights at new stadiums.
"It's becoming a situation of haves and have-nots," Raiders attorney Joe Alioto said outside court. "To compete, teams must be able to get in a situation that maximizes revenue to get the coaches and players they need."
Alioto said that is what Davis was trying to do at the proposed Hollywood Park stadium, where income for the Raiders from luxury suites, club seats and naming rights could have exceeded $20 million a year.
To help sell those suites, the NFL offered to hold a Super Bowl at the stadium within five years and provide 10,000 tickets to the game for the Raiders.
But the deal ran into problems when the league pushed to have a second, unspecified NFL team play at the stadium. Alioto said another team would have crippled the Raiders when it came to selling luxury suites and competing for fan loyalty.
"The notion of two teams playing in the same stadium is a malicious act," Alioto said. "The Raiders were deprived of the No. 1 stadium in one of the top national markets."
Saying the NFL left him no choice, Davis finally returned to Oakland, where he accepted a deal that provided $63 million in upfront payments, loans and other benefits. Since then, however, the Raiders have accused Oakland and others of not living up to their end of the deal.
