L.A. Hopes Deal for Raiders Fails : Leaders Think Irwindale May Have Promised Team Too Much

As angry Los Angeles political leaders questioned whether the deal moving the Los Angeles Raiders to Irwindale will actually go through, team owner Al Davis revealed plans on Friday for a “state-of-the-art” stadium with a capacity of 62,000 to 65,000 that will be ready for play by 1990.

An ebullient Davis told an El Segundo news conference that he is already consulting with Dallas architect Ken Morey--designer of the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium--and will be ready to break ground as soon as Irwindale fulfills its commitment to provide him with 160 acres of free land for the stadium and for parking, plus a loan of $115 million.

Irwindale has until Nov. 4 to make good on those promises. If it does not, Davis is free to take the $10-million cash advance he was handed by city representatives Thursday night and go elsewhere. The Raiders owner made it plain several times at the news conference that he expects Irwindale to live up to its commitments precisely and on time.

But those commitments and possible difficulties in fulfilling them are what has given some Los Angeles politicians hope that the Raiders move will not come off.

Not Yet a ‘Done Deal’

Mayor Tom Bradley, declaring that he hopes the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum may yet retain the Raiders, said Friday that he is asking Coliseum commissioners to continue “working as hard as they can to keep the doors of communication open, because I am of the mind that nothing is a done deal until they (the Raiders) play their first game in some other stadium.

“There are many things that could happen between his receiving that $10 million and that stadium being built,” Bradley said, referring to Davis.

The chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, Mike Antonovich, sharply questioned Irwindale’s decision to put up so much public money to help the Raiders. The commitment, according to Irwindale officials, could mount to more than $170 million when access roads and debt service are counted.

“The thought of pledging (such amounts) to build and operate another stadium in the county of Los Angeles when we already have a first-class stadium . . . just doesn’t make sense and raises many questions,” Antonovich said.

It is by no means clear, he added, that the Board of Supervisors will grant Irwindale’s request that the Raiders be allowed to use 80 acres of county-leased land for stadium parking. The board will discuss that matter on Tuesday, Antonovich said.

Coliseum Commission negotiator Richard Riordan, meanwhile, said, “I think that certainly the Irwindale transaction is not 100% certain.” He and other Coliseum officials threatened, too, to sue the Raiders if they try to leave the Coliseum to play in Irwindale before the expiration of their Coliseum lease in 1991.

Davis, however, said he believes that the Coliseum breached its contract with him by refusing to go ahead with promised seating changes last spring. The Raiders suffered heavy damages as a result, he said, and he will not agree to further talks with the Coliseum Commission under any circumstances.

‘Turned Their Back on Us’

“They turned their back on us and said, ‘We’re scrapping all the treaties,’ ” Davis said of the Coliseum Commission. “I was a kid 8 years old when I heard someone say that. He was running the Third Reich.”

In the last 20 years, the Coliseum complex, which includes the Sports Arena, has lost four major teams that were dissatisfied with the way they were treated there--the Rams and UCLA in football, the Lakers in basketball and the Kings in hockey. Davis, explaining why the Raiders decided to leave, said that one city after another had provided stadium amenities--such as luxury boxes and close-in seating--for professional teams and that only Los Angeles had failed to be accommodating.

Davis discounted the laments of Los Angeles City Council members and others about losing the Raiders, insisting that the city is not really losing its team.

“We’re still the L.A. Raiders,” he said, pointing out that Irwindale is just 19 miles from downtown Los Angeles and predicting, “Los Angeles fans will follow us.”

Davis said he would not even rule out the California Angels moving to his stadium from Anaheim, although he said they will probably work out their problems with Anaheim Stadium. His new stadium--which he said he will name “Raiders Stadium”--will be “oriented to football,” he declared, but it will be possible to play baseball or hold concerts there, too.

But Angel owner Gene Autry, however, said there was “no way” he would consider moving his team to the San Gabriel Valley.

“I don’t want to (move),” Autry said. “A couple of weeks ago, some reporter called me and asked me about moving the club. He mentioned Irwindale.

“I said it all depends (on the outcome of the Angels’ lawsuit) Naturally, if we couldn’t play here, we’d have to think about it. But I’d say there’s no way. I think that reporter was just looking for a story.”

Memorandum Held Back

Although the Raiders had said at the outset of Davis’ news conference that they would release copies of the nine-page “memorandum of agreement” with Irwindale signed Thursday night in Oxnard, they suddenly refused to do so at the end of the conference.

A Raiders aide who had been holding scores of copies to distribute to the press disappeared, and Irwindale authorities, although they conceded that the agreement is a public document, also said they would not make it available until city offices open on Monday.

Irwindale City Atty. Charles Martin said, however, that only a few relatively minor changes had been made in the draft approved by the Irwindale City Council Wednesday night. But a copy of that draft obtained by The Times pointed up the sweeping nature of what Irwindale is promising the Raiders.

According to this document, Irwindale is obligated to:

- Provide to the Raiders at no cost a stadium site of 80 acres located at the northwest intersection of the 210 Freeway and Irwindale Avenue that is presently owned by CalMat Co.

- Provide to the team at no cost an 80-acre parking site next to the stadium site. The proposed parking area is now owned by the Army Corps of Engineers and leased to Los Angeles County for the purposes of “wildlife preservation and recreation only.”

- Lend the Raiders $115 million, which they can use to build the stadium or for any other purpose. It is to be repaid with 50% of all concessions, merchandise, novelty and parking revenue, luxury box licensing, signage, advertising, admission taxes and rental or permit fees received from events other than football. But only a portion of that 50% can be used for repayment of the loan because $2.5 million of it will be set aside each year to give Davis funds to operate the stadium. Income from Raiders ticket sales or television royalties cannot be taken to cover loan payments.

- Davis will own the stadium.

- Irwindale must provide $35 million to build access roads and other facilities and, in addition, must pay for all environmental impact reports and for preparation of the gravel pit site for construction.

- The Raiders are committed to playing in the stadium for 15 years, assured of not having to pay more than $300,000 a year of possessory interest taxes on the stadium, unless a higher payment is negotiated.

Some unhappy Los Angeles officials who studied the memorandum expressed the hope Friday that some of its provisions will be so difficult for Irwindale to deliver that the city may not make the Nov. 4 deadline. They also questioned whether the repayment provisions are adequate to ensure that the bonds the city plans to sell will be repaid.

The first sticking point may be the Corps of Engineers-owned, county-leased land for the parking.

Irwindale’s chief negotiator, Fred Lyte, said at the Raiders news conference that if this land proves to be unavailable, he would expect the Raiders to agree to take an alternative site.

But Davis was quick to correct him.

“To be blunt about it, if the City of Irwindale cannot deliver the land, they will forfeit the money (already given to the Raiders) up front,” Davis said.

He reiterated the point twice during the news conference.

Irwindale has already offered the county a half-share of the expected parking revenue, amounting to $400,000 a year in exchange for permission to use the land, city officials said and county officials confirmed.

Land May Not Be Available

But one supervisor, Ed Edelman, said Friday that he will vote against letting the land be used, and others reserved their position or would not comment.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Corps of Engineers questioned whether, under the county lease, the parcel can legally be used for parking at all. Even if the Corps ultimately decides that it can be, said John Rasco, a decision may not be possible by the Nov. 4 deadline.

Rasco added that no one--neither the county nor Irwindale nor the Raiders--has yet even contacted the Corps of Engineers to tell them precisely which portion of the 836 acres owned by the Corps is wanted.

Describing reporters who asked questions about such problems as “negative, negative, negative,” Davis vowed, “We’re going to get it done.” Irwindale officials expressed similar feelings.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, some of the officials at the Coliseum Commission who had been responsible for holding back on promises to Davis to go ahead and renovate the Coliseum last spring were not available for comment.

Commission President Alexander Haagen, who had been the leader of those refusing to move, was said to be traveling. Also unavailable were Supervisors Pete Schabarum and Deane Dana, who had supported Haagen’s position.

Split Membership

The Coliseum Commission has a split membership, in that three members each are appointed by the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County and the state. The county and state government appointees, named by Republican officeholders, were generally the ones refusing to give Davis what he wanted before the Coliseum renovation collapsed, while the city’s Democratic appointees wanted to be accommodating.

Bradley and one of his appointed commissioners, labor leader Bill Robertson, lost little time Friday in pointing that out, with Robertson calling Haagen the “villain” of the Coliseum’s failure to hold the Raiders.

Other officials called for revamping the Coliseum Commission to make it a unified body or even giving a private authority the power to represent it in future negotiations.

Davis, for his part, said that as soon as the Coliseum Commission began to fail to honor what he understood were its commitments to him last spring, he had been surprised to find how many offers he had to move elsewhere, both in the Los Angeles area or elsewhere.

Davis said he was delighted to be able to stay in the Los Angeles area.