Defense Says Davis Knew Sellouts Weren’t Guaranteed

Al Davis knew there was no guarantee of sellouts when he moved the Raiders to Oakland in 1995 and contradicted himself on who is to blame for sagging ticket sales and the so-called “Baltimore opportunity,” the defense argued Wednesday in the team’s $1-billion fraud case.

In his first full day of cross-examination, Davis was confronted with his own words -- depositions taken for his $1-billion lawsuit against the NFL over the rights to the Los Angeles market -- and they appeared to conflict with what he is claiming in his suit against Oakland.

Davis says his team would be far more valuable now had he moved from L.A. to Baltimore instead of to Oakland. But Oakland attorney Jim Brosnahan said the Baltimore situation was a non-starter, in part because Oriole owner Peter Angelos wanted to buy 50% of the Raiders.

“Never happened. Not true,” Davis said. “And I don’t know why you come up with these things.”

Brosnahan promptly produced the transcript of a 1997 deposition in which Davis said Angelos wanted to buy half the team and move it to Baltimore.

“They were dealing in mega-money,” Davis said in the deposition, later adding, “It was the finest offer that anyone could want.”

During another terse exchange, Brosnahan drew a pie chart and asked how much blame city officials deserve in regard to the Raiders’ sellout problems in Oakland. Davis said it was about 95% of the pie.

Brosnahan then showed a clip from a videotaped deposition of Davis, one taken in 2001 as part of the L.A. case, and the Raider owner makes the pie analogy. Davis said the NFL deserves the whole pie of blame, and “maybe someone else would be some of the frosting.”

Although that appears to take Oakland off the hook, it’s not entirely clear whether Davis is referring to who should shoulder the blame for the problems in Oakland or to the failure of a proposal to build a stadium at Hollywood Park.

Raider attorney Roger Dreyer said Davis’ comments about assigning blame in 2001 were taken out of context. Dreyer said outside of court that Davis thought Brosnahan was referring to a formal offer from Angelos.

Dreyer said he plans to “clear up the confusion” when he gets to question Davis on redirect, which could begin today. The trial has lasted 10 weeks -- two weeks longer than expected -- and the Raider owner is the plaintiff’s last witness, meaning the defense has yet to put on its case.

“This is great theater because Al Davis is an icon,” said Dreyer, who contends the defense is more interested in style than substance. “He’s a larger-than-life character.”

Davis claims he agreed to move his team back to Oakland with the understanding that the Coliseum would be sold out not only for the 1995 season but for the rest of the 16-year lease.

But Brosnahan points out Davis, generally known to be a shrewd businessman, never got such a promise in writing and should have known there were problems with ticket sales from the start. The ticket problems were widely reported in newspapers and on television, even before the Raiders played their first game in 1995. Davis said he was told all tickets were sold for the ’95 season, and that he thought any references to slow ticket sales were in regard to the ’96 season -- problems that he thought would be worked out over time.

Said Davis: “I was told, ‘Everything is fine. Don’t worry about it. We’ll get it done.’ ”