Fans at Coliseum Games to Get a Closer Look : $11-Million Seating Renovation Plan Calls for Portable Seats Near Sidelines

The $11-million seating renovation plan announced by the Coliseum Commission last week will put some Raider and USC football fans right on top of the action.

One frequent complaint about the 66-year-old stadium is that the seats are too far from the action because of the running track.

In the renovation, however, not only will the track be preserved, the sideline seats will be extended to just behind the team benches. Seats in the east end zone will be extended to within several yards of the end line.

“This was impossible before because of the track,” said Scott Carmichael, a spokesman for the commission. “It will make the Coliseum a much more attractive facility for football.

“Even though the capacity of the stadium will decrease, we will be gaining 9,100 seats much closer to the action, and 2,000 of those will be between the end zones.”

The lowest section of seats, rows 1 to 29, will be hydraulically moved to make room for 13 new rows of portable seats. The new seats will be installed around the Coliseum from end zone to end zone, stopping at the peristyle, or east, end.

For track events, the portable seats will be removed and the original seats will be hydraulically returned to their original position.

New portable seats will also be installed in the peristyle end of the stadium. They will be moved into position behind the end zone for football games, and moved back for other events.

This will not be a completely new look for football. The Coliseum installed seats behind the end zone for Ram, USC and UCLA games in the 1970s.

“We can use these seats the way indoor stadiums such as the Kingdome do, moving them in and out for different events,” Carmichael said. “They use them for basketball, of course, but we could do it for boxing and other events, perhaps concerts.

“How we will use them remains to be seen, but it gives us so much more flexibility for different events.”

Construction will begin as soon as the Raiders’ home season is over and is expected to take seven months. The Raiders will be installing their luxury suites at the top of the stadium at the same time, and construction on both projects is expected to be finished for the 1987 season.

The Coliseum probably will be out of business, except for events in the Sports Arena next door, during that time. Usually, the stadium has motocross events, off-road racing, concerts and international soccer during spring and summer months.

“We generally have 6 to 10 events, so we know we’ll lose some revenue,” Carmichael said. “But it has to be done some time, and the Raiders and USC are our main tenants. We feel we might sell more season tickets and we’ll pick up some of the revenue there. But we’re not worried that much about it because these two renovations will really bring us up to state of the art.”