Coliseum Head Says Raiders Ask Too Much

The Los Angeles Coliseum Commission president, Alexander Haagen, says he has concluded that there is neither the money nor the time available to meet the Raiders’ wishes and go ahead with a $9-million Coliseum seating reconfiguration this year.

Haagen, in a Times interview, edged toward a confrontation with the National Football League team’s owner Al Davis, declaring:

“He’s called all over town, called corporate leaders, trying to find out how to get to me. His attitudes have been abusive. He is apparently angry because I’m the messenger who has been bringing the bad news.�

The commission president said the bad news is that no bank loan to finance the Coliseum work is presently obtainable, and that even if one were possible it is too late to draw up plans, accept bids, get the building permits and finish the project before the Aug. 15 start of the Raiders’ next football season. He said the commission has no funds of its own to do the work.

Since Feb. 18, the Raiders have refused to continue their own project of constructing 60 luxury boxes on the north rim of the Coliseum unless the commission agrees to undertake the reconfiguration at the same time. The reconfiguration would install retractable seats over the Olympic track at lower levels of the stadium to bring football fans closer to the action. Overall capacity of the stadium for football would be reduced from 92,000 to about 80,000.

On Friday, Haagen’s evaluation that the reconfiguration work could not be financed or performed this year was challenged by the Raiders and, to some degree, by Richard J. Riordan, a member of the commission’s own negotiating committee on the matter.

The Raiders’ senior administrator, Irv Kaze, said that, contrary to Haagen’s statements, “We have people working on this, and it’s going to work itself out.�

Kaze said the Raiders are disappointed that Haagen is “really taking somewhat of an obstructionist position,� but he denied that Davis has been making calls to put pressure on him.

“Al (Davis) never called anybody,� the Raider official said. “Corporate people read the papers. They want the improvements. . . . They may be making some calls on their own.�

Kaze said the Raiders believe that the Coliseum’s other major football tenant, USC, also wants the reconfiguration. But a USC administrator, Tony Lazzaro, said the university is not taking sides. He said USC only hopes that the Coliseum, reconfigured or not, will be in good condition for next fall’s football games.

Riordan said that discussions with several banks continue and that while arranging any loan would be “extremely complicated . . . we’re cautiously optimistic we can do something.�

He did express concern, however, that even if a loan is arranged, it may prove too late to do the work this year.

“We have to wonder about the engineering aspects,� Riordan said. “Are we moving too quickly on something that is too complicated?�

According to officials on both sides of the dispute, Davis and USC officials, in an attempt to make a loan possible, agreed to go along with a $1 surcharge on tickets, as well as a 25-cent surcharge on most concession items. The extra revenue would be used to help pay off a prospective $13-million, eight-year loan to finance both the reconfiguration and to pay off $4 million in Coliseum-Sports Arena bonds currently outstanding.

Haagen said the surcharges would bring in $1.7 million a year, and that another $400,000 in annual repayment funds would be forthcoming from eventual rentals on the luxury boxes and from Coliseum funds being used now to pay interest charges on the bonds.

But, he said, this would leave the Coliseum a little more than $200,000 short of meeting the estimated annual loan payments of $2,306,200.

The commission president said that banks were asking that the Raiders and USC issue irrevocable letters of credit that they would pay any outstanding balances in a balloon payment at the end of the eight years. He said USC has balked at this and that while the Raiders have indicated they might go along, he doubts whether their bankers would underwrite such a letter of credit.

At present, with the luxury box work suspended pending a resolution of the negotiations, there is a gaping hole where about 1,700 removed regular seats had been at the top of the north side of the stadium. In addition, two lighting standards were destroyed in the three weeks of box work already done.

The acting general manager of the Coliseum, Glenn Mon, said Friday that if the Raiders choose not to go ahead with the box construction this year, and the seats and light standards have to be replaced, the cost will be $463,000. He said the Raiders would be expected to pay for the work.