SAN FRANCISCO -- The U.S. Football League has filed another antitrust suit against the National Football League, claiming the senior organization has undermined the Oakland Invaders.
The USFL took its latest grievance against the NFL to U.S. District Court in San Francisco Thursday, filing a $90 million antitrust action similar to a $1.32 billion suit filed in federal court in New York Oct. 16, 1984.
The New York suit charges that the NFL has violated antitrust law in an effort to control pro football in the country.
In the San Francisco suit, the Invaders are portrayed as victims of the effort by the city of Oakland and its mayor, Lionel Wilson, to win the return of the Los Angeles Raiders to Oakland.
The Invaders have been shut out of a fall season playing schedule due to Oakland's hopes for an NFL team to locate in the city, according to the suit.
The USFL claims financial damages through an inferior position in the television market and fan loyalty of $30 million. Under antitrust law, if the suit is successful, the damages can be tripled.
The suit says that when the USFL announced plans for a fall season, Oakland and the county coliseum impaired the ability of the USFL to compete with the NFL by offering to build a new and larger stadium for professional football if an NFL team would move into the city.
The action 'disparages the professional football product being offered by the Invaders... threatens to place the Invaders at a permanent competitive disadvantage'... and fosters a belief among fans, television networks and players that 'expansion of the NFL is imminent' and 'the demise of the USFL is inevitable,' according to the court document.
The USFL suit states the NFL, league commissioner Pete Rozelle and 27 of the 28 NFL teams have engaged in a campaign of 'discouraging public and media interest in and support for the USFL, and particularly the local USFL member club, the Oakland Invaders.'
The only club not named in the suit is the Los Angeles Raiders.
Beverly Hills attorney Jeffery Charlston, who filed the suit for the USFL, refused any comment on the case, including the reason for exempting the Raiders, and said he could not elaborate on why a separate action was filed specifically complaining of actions against the Invaders.
The city of Oakland is not named in the suit but is considered a 'co-conspirator' along with the Alameda County Coliseum Commission, which operates the stadium where the Invaders now play and where the Raiders used to play.
The suit claims the USFL has suffered financially by Mayor Wilson's continued efforts to acquire an NFL franchise for Oakland. The city has sought unsuccessfuly through the courts to get the Raiders to return to Oakland.
'If the Raiders cannot be forced to Oakland, then the defendants want a competition-free market in which to place any expansion team,' Charlston states in the court suit.
