Odds for Raiders in Irwindale Grow Dim

Sixteen months after the Los Angeles Raiders announced plans to build a football stadium in suburban Irwindale, their playing plans, beyond their commitment to play in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum through 1991, appear to be in greater doubt than ever.

Several major factors are complicating the Raiders’ situation even as team representatives suggest that owner Al Davis would like, in 1989, to determine once and for all where the team’s permanent home will be:

- A principal negotiator of the original Aug. 20, 1987, memorandum of agreement that committed the Raiders to moving to Irwindale, redevelopment consultant Fred Lyte, has been fired by the Irwindale City Council. Lyte’s dismissal last week apparently reflected concern by the city’s mayor, Pat Miranda, and other council members over the mounting legal, financial and environmental costs associated with the Raider deal.

Lyte’s firing, which prompted an angry blast from Lyte suggesting that the Raider move is “in jeopardy,� raised questions about who would handle the city’s talks with the Raiders during a critical period when a definitive agreement for the stadium construction and financing for it must be arranged.

- The negotiating environment at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where the team could conceivably continue to play should the Irwindale deal collapse, remains unsatisfactory from the Raiders’ point of view.

Irving Azoff of MCA’s Music Entertainment Group, leader of the Coliseum’s new private management team, said recently in an interview that he had been informed by Raider representatives that Davis is adamant against negotiating with Coliseum authorities until his old nemesis, Alexander Haagen, and Haagen’s commission supporter, Fred Reidman, leave the nine-member commission.

Davis blames Haagen for the breakdown in Coliseum renovation plans two years ago that prompted his decision to move to Irwindale. Haagen has spoken of leaving the commission in February, but he announced last year that he would leave in February, 1988, and then did not do so.

- Even if the way was cleared for new Raider-Coliseum negotiations, and somehow the Coliseum Commission’s $57-million suit against the Raiders for alleged breach of contract were put aside, there are other problems. Still unresolved is how far the Coliseum authorities and Davis would be willing to go, or could afford to go, to meet Davis’ longtime insistence on a reconfiguration of the aging stadium to lower its seating capacity, build luxury boxes and make it a better place to watch football.

Clipper Negotiations

The stadium’s private managers are preoccupied with negotiations with the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team for a proposed long-term lease in exchange for as much as $21 million in renovations at the Sports Arena, which is part of the Coliseum complex.

Azoff said if the Clipper talks fall through, the money that might otherwise be committed to the Sports Arena would be available to help finance the Coliseum renovation.

There has been some suggestion recently that the Clippers might move to Anaheim, where there are proposals for construction of a new indoor arena. Azoff’s suggestion was that a negotiating stance toward the Raiders may be somewhat dependent on what happens with the Clippers.

Clipper owner Donald Sterling, asked this week about negotiations involving his team, responded: “We are analyzing all of our opportunities. We have received proposals from several groups. Ultimately, we will do what’s in the best interests of this franchise.�

- Other Raider options, should Irwindale fall through, appear uncertain. A team representative said recently, for example, that Davis might like to talk again with Hollywood Park and Inglewood interests about building a stadium at Hollywood Park.

The representative added, however, that 1987 discussions about Hollywood Park, before the announcement of a move to Irwindale, were not encouraging to the team. No definite financial offer was made, the team official said.

Davis has also reportedly been holding occasional discussions with Oakland interests about moving back there, although the representative said Davis would prefer not to leave the Los Angeles area.

City Council to Act

What happens now, according to all parties concerned, awaits developments in Irwindale. The City Council is expected to approve a required environmental impact report for the proposed stadium there on Jan. 12, and attorneys for the city will then have to go before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charles Jones to get a clearance on proceeding with contractual and financial arrangements for the stadium.

Attorneys for Los Angeles City Councilman Ernani Bernardi, who sued last year to prevent the Raiders’ move to Irwindale, have vowed to resist court acceptance of the environmental impact report.

If Jones gives his go-ahead, Irwindale will be faced with producing a financial arrangement and a contract satisfactory to Davis or see the deal collapse.

Last week, in light of Lyte’s firing, Raider official John Herrera expressed, for the first time in public, uneasiness about the prospects, saying the team still hopes the Irwindale deal will go forward.

Another team representative, who did not want to be identified, said last week that regardless of what happens in Irwindale, Davis wants to see the question of a playing site resolved next year.

Even as this word came, it was confirmed that attorneys for the Raiders’ owner and the National Football League, seeking to end their protracted litigation over the team’s 1982 move to Los Angeles, appear to be in the final stage of settlement talks of the judgment in that suit. The settlement figure mentioned was a proposed $18-million NFL payment to the Raiders.