Bradley and Hammer Get Into Talks on Coliseum

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and industrialist Armand Hammer were reported Thursday to be making a last-ditch attempt to resolve the dispute over a proposed seating reconfiguration and planned luxury suites at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, trying to insure that both projects would go forward this year.

Bradley and Hammer, who volunteered his assistance to the mayor, met for 90 minutes in Bradley’s office with Coliseum Commission President Alexander Haagen, Los Angeles Raiders owner Al Davis and other principals in the matter.

But after the meeting Thursday, Bradley’s press secretary, Ali Webb, said that no settlement of the dispute was ready to be announced and that the mayor would have no comment.

Another participant in the meeting said that there were “still some outstanding matters that have to be resolved” and that, while there were hopeful elements in the situation, it was not clear what would happen next.

Resists Quick Agreement

Haagen, who has repeatedly expressed the view there is neither the time nor the money available to do the $9-million seating reconfiguration this year, was said earlier by a participant in the discussions to be resisting pressure for a quick agreement. The reconfiguration would place retractable seats over the running track and lower rows of the stadium to bring fans closer to the action during football games.

A Coliseum staff member quoted Haagen as expressing concern that any attempt to rush through a revamping of Coliseum seating this year could result in doing irreparable aesthetic damage to the 60-year-old stadium. “We are making decisions today that will affect our children and grandchildren,” the staff member quoted Haagen as saying.

But the mayor and Hammer were reported to be convinced that the financial well-being of the stadium and the future of professional football in Los Angeles could only be assured by going ahead with the project now. According to confidants of the mayor, both fear that unless the Coliseum is made better for watching football, the Raiders are apt to leave the city.

Neither the mayor nor the 88-year-old Hammer, however, were reported to have put any direct pressure on Haagen Thursday. Davis reportedly attempted to exert such pressure, but was not successful.

Calls Bank Concerning Loan

At one point in a conversation involving Hammer, Davis and labor leader William Robertson on Wednesday, one of the participants said, Hammer had picked up his telephone and called A. W. Clausen, chairman of the Bank of America.

“In one minute, Clausen told Hammer that a loan to finance the work would be approved,” the participant said.

In San Francisco, a spokesman for Clausen said, “We don’t have any comment.”

Talks have been going on with several banks, most persistently with Wells Fargo and Security Pacific, for months with no announced agreement on financing the reconfiguration project.