Coliseum to Make New Pass in Attempt to Keep Raiders

Twenty-two months after Los Angeles Raiders owner Al Davis announced plans to move his football team to suburban Irwindale, and amid reports of offers from Oakland and Sacramento, the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission will get its chance Friday to present an offer for keeping the Raiders in the Coliseum.

With Irwindale unable thus far to put together financing for its stadium, sources on both sides said that Davis is scheduled to meet with Coliseum Commission President Richard Riordan and that Riordan will propose a plan calling for a major reconstruction of the Coliseum that would take two to three years to complete.

The Coliseum offer will include lowering the playing field and doing away with the Olympic track, reducing stadium capacity to 75,000 or less in an all-football configuration, installing 200 luxury boxes and essentially retaining only the historic east-end peristyle while developing a modern stadium to replace the 65-year-old present facility.

Financing for the reconstruction would come from money the Coliseum Commission received from the National Football League in a lawsuit against it for impeding the Raiders move from Oakland in the early 1980s, and from bonds or loans.

With the Irwindale deal faltering and rumors circulating in recent weeks that Davis may be about to move north, word of the impending Coliseum offer was welcomed Wednesday by Raiders attorney Joseph Alioto, the former mayor of San Francisco.

“It’s about time they’re doing that,” said Alioto of the offer. And another Raider source, who asked not to be identified, remarked, “You listen to everyone in a situation like this.”

Alioto, cautioning that he is not involved in the various talks, nonetheless made these points about the Raiders’ current situation.

* “Sacramento is up there with a $35-million earnest offer to close a deal. I happen to know some of the Sacramento people involved. It’s a very resourceful group that has the wherewithal (to build a new stadium).”

* “Of course, Oakland is interested.”

* “My impression on Irwindale is that they have not met their obligations (to arrange construction of a Raiders stadium). Their time schedule is being disrupted.”

* “My basic feeling is that the Los Angeles Coliseum certainly ought to come forward with their best offer.”

Riordan declined comment on Friday’s meeting with Davis.

But Irving Azoff, chairman of the MCA Music Entertainment Group, representing the private managers of the Coliseum complex, the MCA-Spectacor partnership, said that he would go to the meeting if he is invited.

Several Options

And Tony Tavaras, president of Spectacor Management Group, declared: “The reason Davis is willing to meet at this point in time is that there are several options in front of him from various cities, and he wants to see what we are willing to do.

“Davis is only interested in a substantially renovated Coliseum, a state-of-the-art facility that would have a substantial (profit) upside for him,” Tavaras said.

Meanwhile, Coliseum Commission attorney Marshall Grossman said that any offer Riordan makes to Davis will “be in the context of a settlement” of the commission’s $57-million lawsuit against the team for alleged breach of contract in its dealings with Irwindale and its expressed intentions to leave the Coliseum.

“The Coliseum Commission has always been willing to extend settlement offers to the Raiders, but it takes two to settle a lawsuit,” Grossman observed.

Irwindale Aware of Talks

A spokesman for Irwindale said that the city had been informed by Davis of the impending meeting with Riordan, but its understanding of it was that it was mainly to discuss settlement of the lawsuit.

The spokesman, Xavier Hermosillo, said that “from a non-lawyer standpoint,” he believes that the Raiders still have legal obligations to Irwindale under a memorandum of agreement signed in August, 1987.

Under that agreement, Irwindale made a $10-million advance payment to Davis which the agreement said he would be allowed to keep if the city was unable to arrange construction of the stadium.

Hermosillo said Irwindale continues to try to put together a stadium project for the Raiders and that he and other city representatives met with Davis on Wednesday. In fact, he said, he was calling The Times from the Raiders offices during a break in the meeting.

Despite these statements, however, Hermosillo has recently acknowledged that it may be the end of the year before Irwindale can arrange financing for the project, and there have been repeated reports in recent weeks that Davis has been willing to entertain other offers.

The San Francisco Examiner reported on Sunday, for example, that Davis had met on May 19 with Gregg Lukenbill, managing general partner of the Arco Arena and the Sacramento Kings basketball franchise in Sacramento, to discuss a $225-million proposed new stadium for the Raiders in the state capital.

Oakland Ready to Act

The same story quoted George Vukasin, chairman of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Commission, as saying that in view of other offers for the Raiders, he feared he could no longer afford to stand by.

“Until now my position has been that I would not talk to the Raiders as long as they still have something going with Irwindale,” said Vukasin. “But, judging from some of the things I’ve heard recently, I may have to reconsider.”

Vukasin has plans to expand the capacity of the Oakland stadium and build more luxury boxes there.

While one person close to the Raiders team said in recent days that the Raiders have been cautioning their players and administrative personnel not to buy homes in Los Angeles because it is “99% certain that it’s a done deal” that the team will move to either Oakland or Sacramento, another person close to the team said there is some feeling on the team that Davis is still open to all offers.

This person said he felt that Davis was playing a game with the Oakland and Sacramento options, putting more pressure on the Coliseum Commission to come up with a better deal.

A Bay Area source who has closely tracked efforts to get the Raiders to move back to Oakland and who has been in touch with Davis said Wednesday that he is sure Davis will want to see what Los Angeles offers before making any decision to go to either Oakland or Sacramento.