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In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors.
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Raiders case goes to jury
Wednesday August 06, 2003
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) The financial fate of the Oakland
Raiders was handed to a jury Wednesday to decide whether the team
was cheated of hundreds of millions of dollars when it was wooed
back from Los Angeles.
The Raiders claim Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum officials
tricked them into returning for 16 years by falsely promising a
sold-out stadium.
The suit charges the coliseum, its chief negotiator Ed DeSilva
and the now-defunct Arthur Andersen accounting firm with
intentionally misleading the team. The coliseum also faces charges
of negligent misrepresentation and breach of good faith in
negotiating.
By the end of the contract in 2010, the team said they will have
lost $833 million in ticket sales and diminished franchise value by
moving to Oakland in 1995. If coliseum officials hadn't lied, the
team's lawyer said the Raiders could have moved to Baltimore where
it would expect to be $571 million to $809 million richer by 2010.
Defense lawyers claim the team isn't owed a cent and that no
promises of a sold-out stadium were made to Raiders owner Al Davis
or other team officials. In the 190 pages of contracts Davis signed
Aug. 7, 1995, there is no guarantee of sellouts.
The coliseum's lawyer also said that Davis and his co-owners
made more money after returning to Oakland and that any failures at
the box office were due to losses on the field.
The nine-woman, three-man jury in Sacramento County Superior
Court has heard testimony from 45 witnesses over 16 weeks and will
have more than 600 pieces of evidence to consider in deliberations.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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