Vote Is Landslide on Raiders’ Deal : Pro football: League owners approve plan for new stadium, but Hollywood Park is still $30 million short.

It’s not yet to the point of breaking ground for a proposed $200-million football stadium on Inglewood property owned by Hollywood Park. But on Wednesday, NFL owners handed the shovel to Al Davis, Raider owner, and R.D. Hubbard, chief executive officer of the racetrack, giving them one of the financial tools they need to help make the project a reality.

On the final day of their spring meeting, the owners approved, by a 27-1 vote with two abstaining, a resolution that can generate construction funds, and appointed a three-man committee to work with Hubbard and Davis on completing an agreement and drafting a lease for a possible second NFL tenant.

It was a huge step toward keeping the Raiders in Los Angeles, finishing the stadium project by 1997 and bringing an NFC franchise to the city in 1998.

But the remaining steps appear to be precarious.

Hubbard, although encouraged by Wednesday’s action, must come up with $30 million needed to complete the funding. He had hoped to receive $20 million from the NFL, but that demand was rejected. It is thought that Davis, who is already contributing $20 million to the stadium project, will be asked for more.

Davis, while calling Wednesday’s vote “positive,” refused to commit to remaining in Los Angeles until he confers with Hubbard and others. He indicated that everything from Orange County to Oakland, short-term and long-term, remain possibilities. But Davis is known for keeping all cards in his hand until the game is over.

Until the signatures are written on a stadium contract, it would be uncharacteristic of him to give up any alternative.

The NFL, covering its losses should the stadium project fall apart, earlier asked officials at three possible alternative sites--Pasadena’s Rose Bowl, Anaheim Stadium and an unknown location in Long Beach--to submit feasibility studies on the renovations required to house one or two teams.

“We have accomplished an extremely large amount on the L.A. issue,” said NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who expressed confidence that Hubbard and Davis would complete the deal by a projected July 1 deadline.

The original Hollywood Park proposal submitted by the NFL’s Finance Committee resulted in a shouting match Tuesday among owners split over giving Davis financial aid. The committee met again Tuesday night and made alterations in its proposal, resulting in Wednesday’s landslide vote by the general ownership.

In the approved resolution:

--The new stadium will receive at least one Super Bowl, probably in 2001, and a second one, probably in 2004, if stadium officials accept the option of allowing a second team to play there.

--The Raiders are obligated to play the next two seasons, while awaiting completion of the stadium, in “the Los Angeles area.” But Davis refused Wednesday to say where his team would play its home games in 1995 and ’96.

--Hollywood Park will be required to shut down its gambling operations on the days of the two Inglewood Super Bowls. Hollywood Park officials do not object to the shutdown before and during games, but are expected to oppose a continued shutdown once games are over.

--The Raiders will be allowed to market Super Bowl tickets equal to the number of club seats already sold, up to a maximum of 10,000. Under the original plan, the Raiders would have received the 10,000 tickets up front as a marketing lure to sell the club seats.

--A proposal to require the second NFL tenant to pay Davis half the amount he puts into the stadium project will now be part of the negotiating process among the committee, Davis and Hubbard.

The three-man committee will consist of San Francisco 49er President Carmen Policy, a member of the Finance Committee; Denver Bronco owner Pat Bowlen, head of the Radio-TV Committee, and Carolina Panther owner Jerry Richardson, chairman of the Stadium Construction and Renovation Committee.

“I know NationsBank [the lender on the Hollywood Park project],” said Rich McKay, general manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “This is no simple home mortgage where you’re borrowing $100,000. We can get this deal done, but it isn’t simplistic at all. These aren’t easy issues. I can’t emphasize how difficult this is, but I have to give the league credit. We are a lot farther along than I thought we would be.”

Houston Oiler owner Bud Adams, head of the Finance Committee, saw no alternative.

“We need to get the Raiders established permanently in Los Angeles,” he said. “We did not build this for Al to move out in five years.”

But Davis maintained that he has not made a decision to move in.

“I think it’s a positive,” he said of Wednesday’s vote. “It gives me an opportunity to make several decisions.”

Nor would Davis even concede that should he decide to move into the Inglewood stadium, he would be followed by a second team.

“You must remember the option doesn’t have to be taken,” Davis said. “The NFL’s option is to put the second team in there and, for doing that, you get a second Super Bowl. It’s Hollywood Park or the Raiders’ option to say, ‘No, we don’t want a second team.’

“There are disadvantages such as tremendous competition right in your own [stadium].”

But in an apparent contradiction, he added: “I can’t remember ever operating anywhere where we didn’t have two teams. A lot of people keep saying, ‘Why would you want to go back to Oakland? You’re right up there with the 49ers.’ My attitude is, that’s good. That’s just where I want to be, right next to them.”

Davis’ first move will be to discuss Wednesday’s vote with those who have been courting him in recent weeks, including Oakland representatives.

“I think I have the responsibility to talk to these different venues,” he said, “talk to everybody involved.”

Of his plans for 1995 and ‘96, he said: “We will probably play in the L.A. area. If the commissioner and the Raiders say, ‘Look, it isn’t smart. It doesn’t make economic sense to do that for the couple of years,’ we could play in Anaheim or do something else. Right now, the feeling is, we should stay in the L.A. area.”

With the team’s exhibition opener a little more than two months away, Davis was asked whether he has to announce a decision soon.

“In 1988,” he said. “the city of Oakland and the National Football League were trying to eminent-domain the Raiders, and they were willing to give us two days to come back and play. We’ve got time.”

* Times staff writer Bill Plaschke contributed to this report.