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Plugged In: Amy Trask

Amy Trask spent more than a quarter century working for the L.A. and then Oakland Raiders until 2013, so this week’s potential NFL owners vote to relocate the team to Las Vegas elicits a lot of opinions from the team’s former CEO. She has a book out about her time with the Raiders: “You Negotiate Like a Girl: Reflections on a Career in the National Football League,” and she’s a commentator for CBS Sports during football season.

Actions speak louder than words, and what we have seen over the last year and a half is the team requesting not once, but twice the opportunity, the permission, the approval, league approval, to move.


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On her thoughts about a potential Vegas move: My first thought is with the fans. For my entire career, I had a very special relationship with the fan base and I always cherished it and still cherish it. … It will be heartbreak for some fans and others will be delighted.

What do you think Al Davis would have thought? He would have been torn. … As you know, Las Vegas was a market he very much enjoyed and it was a market he and I discussed with respect to the opportunities for the team, so I think on the one hand he would have been intrigued. But he was also very direct and clear with me in conversations that his heart’s desire was to keep the team in Oakland.

How would he have viewed the roughly $1 billion of debt envisioned? That would have been a very significant issue. … I don’t know what Mark’s level of concern is with that. I certainly know Al’s view of debt; Al had an aversion to debt.

On if Oakland is truly a dead end for stadium talks: It depends almost entirely on whether the parties involved in a potential deal are willing to collaborate and compromise. … I am an adherent to the theory that actions speak louder than words, and what we have seen over the last year and a half is the team requesting not once, but twice the opportunity, the permission, the approval, league approval, to move. First there was the request to relocate to Carson (Calif.) with the Chargers, and when that dream was dashed, the team immediately focused its resources, economic and otherwise, on the Las Vegas opportunity. We need to look no further than Occam’s razor to see the resources that have been committed to relocation. And I do believe if those same resources were committed to a creative, collaborative solution in Oakland, there is one to be had.

On how her new book is doing: Very well. When I did the book I had two goals: be honest and be myself. Having achieved those goals, the rest of this, the enthusiasm about the book, the manner in which it has been embraced, that is icing on the cake. And as you know, I like icing.                                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                               — Daniel Kaplan


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