Davis Claims Loyalty to Oakland

False promises and a sense of honor prompted the Raiders to move back to Oakland and pass on a “better situation” in Baltimore, Al Davis testified Monday.

“I had a strong loyalty toward Oakland,” he said. “Always did. Always will.”

Davis, the team’s controlling owner, is embroiled in a $1-billion lawsuit against the Oakland Coliseum, the Arthur Andersen accounting firm and Ed DeSilva, chief negotiator of the deal that led the Raiders to move from Los Angeles to Oakland after the 1994 season.

Raider officials claim they were lured back to Oakland with the promise of consistent sellouts in the stands and the Coliseum’s luxury suites. The team has struggled to fill the stadium since returning, even last season when the Raiders reached the Super Bowl for the first time in 19 years.

Davis said he was considering viable options at Hollywood Park and in Baltimore, where the Cleveland Browns wound up moving a few months later. He said Oakland officials, among them then-assistant city manager Ezra Rapport, said the stadium would be filled to capacity for every game.

“[Rapport] assured me that it would be done,” Davis said. “And used words repeatedly like ‘slam dunk,’ and, ‘We can do it. We’ll get it done.’ ”

But Oakland attorney Jim Brosnahan, who plans to begin cross-examining Davis as soon as today, argued the Raider owner knew well what Oakland was offering.

Davis says that a lack of sellouts will cost the Raiders $728 million and reduce the value of the franchise by $380 million by 2015. He is expected to be on the witness stand for at least most of the week.