Private Talks on Coliseum Seating Issue Under Attack

Los Angeles Coliseum Commission President Alexander Haagen Tuesday expressed impatience with a series of private meetings arranged by Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and industrialist Armand Hammer to try to resolve the Coliseum seating dispute, declaring that the only body competent to decide what to do is the full commission.

Haagen said he has told Los Angeles Raiders owner Al Davis that the most orderly way to proceed would be to do the $9-million seating reconfiguration next year. He said he hopes the Raiders will go ahead with construction of luxury suites this year but only if the plans are made more aesthetically acceptable.

Although most others involved in the private Coliseum talks do not agree with him, Haagen vowed to persevere. “You don’t question America, motherhood, apple pie or Al Davis, I suppose,” he said. “But I have the temerity to go on with this.”

Bradley and Hammer are withholding public comment on the Coliseum negotiations.

‘Prove His Leadership’

But two others involved in the talks say that if the deadlock is to be broken, Bradley is going to have to take a more forceful position with his long-time supporter, Haagen.

“Haagen does a lot of work with the city, and I think the mayor has to play all his cards,” said one of these persons. “He has to prove his leadership.”

Neither of the persons would allow his name to be used. But both suggested that Bradley has not pressed hard enough for a resolution of the dispute at meetings in City Hall last Thursday or in Hammer’s office Monday.

A Bradley spokesman reiterated Tuesday that the mayor would have no comment for now. On Monday, the same spokesman had said Bradley was not even going to attend the meeting in Hammer’s office.

Bradley Left Early

Bradley did go but stayed only one hour and 15 minutes and, according to two of those who attended the meeting, left at a critical moment to attend the Oscar ceremonies.

The Raiders contend the Coliseum Commission has reneged on a pledge to provide portable stands that would roll out over the Coliseum track. The moveable stands would provide better viewing and critically needed seating for long-time season ticket holders whose seats were torn out earlier this year by Davis’ crews to make way for luxury boxes the Raiders want to build.

After tearing out the seats, the Raiders abruptly halted construction, saying they would not build the luxury boxes if the Coliseum Commission does not agree to put in the new seating in time for this year’s football season.

Haagen conceded Tuesday that Davis may be “totally right” that he was given a verbal commitment that the work would be done. But Haagen insists there is neither the money nor the time to do it this year.

Meanwhile, there have been rumors that the Raiders might leave Los Angeles, perhaps for New York or Sacramento. Haagen said he thinks Davis is “bluffing” by doing little to quash these reports.

At one point in Monday’s closed-door discussion, “I used the words ‘when (the Raiders) move,’ and Al Davis came apart,” Haagen declared. “He said he doesn’t want to move, and I don’t really think they’re going to move. I think it’s a bluff.”

On Tuesday, a spokesman for Davis responded: “We don’t want to make any public statements at this point, other than to say that he (Haagen) is stalling and obstructing (the reconfiguration project).”

Haagen, who is believed to command a majority of the nine votes in the commission, said that at a meeting in Hammer’s office Monday afternoon, he and commissioner Fred Riedman declined to sign a letter of intent prepared by another commissioner, Richard Riordan, that would have committed them to support the reconfiguration this year.

Despite Bradley’s vocal support for the letter, Haagen said he and Riedman felt no such commitment could be made without “the total commission’s review and approval.

“It was a far-reaching document, and it did presume that many things could be resolved that in our opinion at this time are a long way from being resolved,” said Haagen, a shopping center developer in private life.

Haagen added that he has been surprised and disappointed to discover that “apparently, there isn’t greater support for aesthetics in the Coliseum. . . . I just don’t understand how anyone can support making additions to that structure without having meaningful architectural review.”

Yet, he said, the Raiders have recently provided plans for luxury suites they want to build on the Coliseum rim this year, if the reconfiguration also goes forward, that “were developed without anybody’s input except the users.”