Raider Executive Takes Stand

The Raider franchise, seeking to stay in Los Angeles, wanted to play in a “world-class” facility that was “really magnificent in every sense of the word,” the team’s chief executive, Amy Trask, testified Tuesday.

Trask, taking the stand in the team’s $1-billion Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit against the NFL, traced the timeline of the Raiders’ search for a suitable facility--a quest that led in 1995 to the proposal at the core of the case, to build a $250-million privately financed stadium at Hollywood Park.

The deal never was closed, however. The Raiders claim the league sabotaged it, forcing the franchise to move to Oakland before the 1995 season. The league says it did no such thing and Raider owner Al Davis simply got a deal in Oakland that he liked better.

The Raiders, who played in Los Angeles from 1982 through 1994, also claim that they still own the L.A. market for NFL football. The team is claiming more than $1 billion in damages. The league denies wrongdoing.

Trask testified that the team’s search for a suitable site intensified after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which heavily damaged the Coliseum, where the Raiders played during their years in L.A.

Trask’s testimony provided the first peek at the Raiders’ internal view of what happened. She was the fifth witness in the case, now in its third week. The others--NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, former league president Neil Austrian, Carolina Panther owner Jerry Richardson and Cleveland Brown President Carmen Policy--were called by the Raiders as hostile witnesses.

Trask’s testimony also served to set the stage for Davis’ appearance on the witness stand. He is due to testify in several weeks.

Earlier Tuesday, Austrian, completing four days of testimony, summed up for jurors the Coliseum’s inadequacies.

Did it have suites? Raider attorney Joseph Alioto asked. No, Austrian said.

Club seats? No.

Concessions? Limited.

Parking? “Very little.”

Restrooms? “Can’t find them.”

So, Alioto said, the Coliseum was “a disaster”?

“It certainly was not adequate for professional football,” Austrian said.