“SHOCKED” Mark Davis revealed the team would be sold….
Because of the financial strains associated with owning the Raiders, late owner Al Davis actually considered selling the team a few years before he died in 2011, a former team employee has revealed.
Former Raiders CEO Amy Trask, who served in the position from 1997 until 2013, sat down for an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Hondo Carpenter and revealed Davis once talked about possibly selling the team.
Trask spoke about a conversation she once had with Davis in which he cited the team’s financial issues as a reason for wanting to get out. Ultimately, she talked him out of it.
“At one point a couple of years before he passed away, he just got tired of it, and he said to me, ‘Let’s just sell the whole team. Let’s just sell the controlling interest. Let’s just sell it. Let’s be done with it. This is hard on you. You’re always having to find us money. You’re just going through lengths to find this. Let’s just sell the whole thing,’” Trask said.
Trask added that she doesn’t think Davis’ son and current owner, Mark Davis, ever knew his father was even considering it.
“I don’t think he (Mark Davis) ever knew that his dad had gotten to the point where he just said, ‘Amy, sell the team,’” she said.
Trask fought on Mark’s behalf to keep Al from selling the team in order to leave it to his son.
“I looked at (Al Davis) and said, ‘You want to leave this team to your wife and your son. You want your son to have this team. I will find you the money,’ and I went and found the money.”
LOS ANGELES, Cal.—Mark Davis has led the Las Vegas Raiders out of past decades of financial hardship to a place of prosperity that his father, the iconic Al Davis, never could.
Davis deserves all the praise, setting the franchise up for decades of success by boldly deciding to move the team from Oakland and California to the milk and honey of the desert in Las Vegas.
This is well known.
What isn’t known is that former team CEO Amy Trask saved the franchise for Mark Davis.
This is my fifth season covering the Silver & Black, and I constantly hear about how the team is “broke” and cannot afford to invest.
Trask spoke about a conversation she once had with Davis in which he cited the team’s financial issues as a reason for wanting to get out. Ultimately, she talked him out of it.
“At one point a couple of years before he passed away, he just got tired of it, and he said to me, ‘Let’s just sell the whole team. Let’s just sell the controlling interest. Let’s just sell it. Let’s be done with it. This is hard on you. You’re always having to find us money. You’re just going through lengths to find this. Let’s just sell the whole thing,’” Trask said.
The more I explored those rumors, the more they did point to the past in Oakland but not to the recent reality of being in Las Vegas.
While the Raiders are undoubtedly frugal, the reality is that frugality doesn’t mean the team is broke.
I applaud Mark Davis for being more connected to his blue-colored fan base than many billionaire owners he rubs shoulders with as the owner of the team.
As I researched the team’s past, I was repeatedly told, “You need to talk to Amy Trask.”
Indeed, Trask fought the financial battles for the team every day working for Al Davis.
Trask and Al Davis had a close relationship, and they cared for and loved one another in a teacher-pupil role. Trask was one of a handful of people who wasn’t afraid of the legendary Al Davis.
