The CA Third District Court of Appeal "has denied" the
Raiders' "bid to keep its business records from being made
public in its legal battle" with the city of Oakland and
Alameda County, according to Bonita Brewer of the CONTRA
COSTA TIMES. The court also "upheld a judge's order" for
the city and county to "release" 412 Raiders documents the
governments "had claimed were confidential attorney-client
communications." The trial on the Raiders' "claim that they
can rescind" their 2011 lease at the Coliseum is "expected
to begin" in April in Sacramento County. The city and
Alameda County yesterday "filed a motion to get almost all
of the" Raiders' suit "thrown out of court," while the
Raiders filed motions asking the judge to "throw out
portions" of a city-county lawsuit (CONTRA COSTA TIMES,
11/30). In San Jose, Renee Koury writes that Raiders Owner
Al Davis "contends he was falsely assured" that all seats
were sold at Network Associates Coliseum "before he signed
the deal" in '95 (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 11/30).
LEGAL MOVE: The SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Mullen &
Lombardo report that NFL owners will meet this week in
Atlanta to discuss a suit brought by Davis against NFL
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and former President Neil
Austrian. The suit claims the two league execs "set up an
executive compensation fund that now totals nearly" $100M by
"getting approval from a hand-picked group of four owners
who were not given all of the details of what they were
approving" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 11/29 issue). In a
sidebar, Mullen reports that the Raiders suit also alleges
that the NFL "granted" News Corp. Chair Rupert Murdoch the
"first right of refusal" to buy an NFL team outside of North
America as part of the World League joint venture with Fox
Entertainment. NFL Senior VP/Communications Joe Browne said
that while the concept was "discussed," Murdoch "does not"
have such a right (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 11/29 issue).
