David McDavid testifies in suit against Turner

David McDavid said he wanted to own a sports team since he was 18.

His father, a Texas car dealer, was friends with American Football League founders Bud Adams and Lamar Hunt. McDavid said he watched the pair each put in $1 million to start the league in 1960 and then marveled at the millions they subsequently made from it.

But McDavid, now 66, hasn’t been as lucky. There were two pro sports teams that he was unsuccessful in buying in 2003: the Atlanta Hawks and Thrashers.

On Thursday, McDavid took the witness stand for the first time in his lawsuit against Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting System, which he alleges broke a contract to sell the teams to him. The trial in Fulton County Superior Court started three weeks ago and McDavid is slated to continue his testimony today.

McDavid, who followed his father into the car dealer business, negotiated with Turner Broadcasting to buy 85 percent of the teams and the Philips Arena operating rights for a reported $350 million.

But Turner announced in September 2003 it was selling the teams to the Atlanta Spirit, a group that includes two relatives of Ted Turner, the founder of Turner Broadcasting.

McDavid filed a $500 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against Turner Broadcasting, accusing the company of breaking a deal to sell the teams and sharing his confidential financial information with the Spirit.

Attorneys representing Turner Broadcasting have not presented their side yet, but will probably do so starting early next week.

Turner’s lawyers and executives have said in court that there was never a final deal in writing with McDavid, whom they also have accused of dragging out the negotiations from April 2003 until September.

On Thursday, it was McDavid who said Turner’s representatives were the ones taking months to complete the deal. At one point, McDavid said he grew so frustrated he walked out of a July 2003 meeting held at the CNN Center.

“I’ve heard everything I want to hear, and I tell my people, ‘OK, guys gather up your stuff, we’re done, and this case is closed,’” McDavid said. “I sighed a sigh of relief because I was just tired.”

He found out later that two of his representatives stayed behind to work out a tax-loss issue with Turner. McDavid said he would agree to what the other parties worked out —- if that also meant he had a final deal to buy the teams and arena rights from Turner.

“I [was] tired of talking about these things,” he said. The parties arranged a conference call for the end of that month. McDavid said he did not participate, but was told that Turner Broadcasting Chairman and CEO Phil Kent said, “That’s a deal.”

For McDavid, that was final. Neither side could back out.

“They were conducting themselves like we had a deal,” he said.

Earlier in the trial, Kent testified that there was never a firm deal to sell the teams and arena rights to McDavid and his comment about striking a deal referred only to the tax issue.

Kent and other Turner executives have testified that other issues remained unresolved.

Before McDavid’s failed attempt to buy the Hawks and Thrashers, he did own a partial stake in the Dallas Mavericks from 1996-2000.