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| Wednesday, May 2 Associated Press | |||
LOS ANGELES – A jury ended its third day of deliberations
Wednesday without reaching a verdict in the Oakland Raiders'
lawsuit against the National Football League.
The Raiders are seeking more than $1 billion in damages after
claiming the league forced the team from the lucrative Los Angeles
market by interfering in a deal to build a new stadium at Hollywood
Park in suburban Inglewood.
The jury was to resume deliberations Thursday.
"Most people will interpret that the longer a jury is out, the
better it is for the plaintiff," said attorney Joe Alioto, who
represents the Raiders. "But I long ago gave up any
interpretation" about the time it takes a jury to decide a case.
Jurors began deliberations Monday after being instructed by
Superior Court Judge Richard C. Hubbell to reach one general
verdict either in favor of the Raiders or the NFL.
NFL spokesman Joe Browne said it appeared that jurors were
taking care in making their decision.
"Our attorney urged them to be careful and methodical in their
review of the evidence," he said.
The case is a civil lawsuit, so it will take a 9-3 jury vote in
favor of either side to win, Alioto said. Anything less would
constitute a hung jury. If jurors find in favor of the Raiders,
they will then consider monetary awards.
At the center of the case is the Los Angeles football market,
which Raiders owner Al Davis claims still belongs to him, even
though he moved back to Oakland in 1995.
If the league wants Los Angeles back, Davis insists, it will
have to pay him an amount likely to exceed the $700 million paid in
1999 for a new franchise in the Houston market.
The outcome of the case will have a significant impact on the
league, according to David Carter, owner of the Sports Business
Group, which advises corporations on sports marketing strategies.
A win by the NFL would firmly establish its authority as the
governing body of the league and give it a stronger voice in
efforts by franchises to relocate.
The resulting stability of markets "will send a message to
television sponsors and others that owners are not carpetbaggers,"
Carter said.
A Raiders win would mean teams would be freer to move and use
that threat when negotiating lease deals and seeking public
subsidies, Carter said.
Davis prevailed over the NFL in 1983 in an antitrust lawsuit
that let the Raiders move to Los Angeles in the first place and
cleared the way for other teams that wanted to pick up and move.
As a result, he is seen by some in sports as a renegade who puts
his financial interests ahead of the league.
A legal victory by the NFL in the current case would
"marginalize" Davis, according to Carter.
"This is a chance for the league to not allow him to dictate to
other cities and franchises about where he wants to go or to draw
damages by trying," Carter said.
As part of the lawsuit, Davis also wants another $580 million he
claims the team lost by not having a chance to play in a new
stadium at Hollywood Park, along with unspecified punitive damages
stemming from alleged discrimination by the league.
The league contends the Raiders never made a firm commitment to
the stadium and only used the situation to get a better deal out of
Oakland, where the team eventually accepted a deal providing $63
million in upfront payments, loans and other benefits.
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.
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.
One question raised by the case was whether Davis is angling to
move the Raiders back to Los Angeles.
He declined to comment on that possibility during 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. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories | ALSO SEE
Dispute between Raiders, NFL now in jury's hands | ||