Davis' earnings revealed in lawsuit

[Gunzlingr]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Raiders owner Al Davis acknowledged during cross-examination Thursday that he and co-owners earned millions of dollars after the team moved back to Oakland despite his claims that the franchise shift was a financial disaster.

Davis acknowledged that $24 million was paid to partners -- including $7 million to himself -- in the first three years after the Raiders returned to Oakland from Los Angeles.

Those cash payments -- one of the attractions of moving to Oakland -- surpassed the nearly $6 million the owners received in their last three years in Los Angeles.

The lawyer representing the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum said Davis got richer from the move, contrary to his claims that he was defrauded in a bad business deal by stadium officials who lured him back on a false promise of a packed stadium

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[The_Philster]

Davis wraps up testimony in lawsuit

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- An aging Al Davis, dressed in identical black and silver for seven days in the witness chair, wrapped up his testimony Tuesday, saying he signed an "excellent deal" to return the Raiders to Oakland in 1995.

"But because of fraud, it turned into a bad deal," he said Tuesday.

Davis, recalling the buoyant East Bay atmosphere in the summer of 1995, repeated claims Tuesday that he trusted assurances by Oakland officials that enthusiastic Raiders fans would pack a remodeled 65,000-seat stadium and return the team and its city to "glory." ...
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[Cntrygal]

Lawyer: Davis, attorneys schemed for money

Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis is acunning businessman who, through a series of calculated moves, made millions of dollars for his team and himself by moving to Oakland in 1995, an attorney for the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum board said Tuesday.
But apparently that wasn't enough, attorney Jim Brosnahan said. So Davis and a plethora of "high-priced" attorneys concocted a story of fraud to extract more from a handful of volunteers and a city and county that had tried to be gracious hosts, he said.

In summing up the defense's case against Davis during closing arguments, Brosnahan asked the jury to answer one question, which he wrote on a board placed in front of them: "Who got the money?"

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