If Raiders Want to Move, Pomona Fair Is Interested

The chief of the Los Angeles County Fair Assn. played down a published report Friday that the fair is soliciting a move by the Raiders away from the Coliseum to a stadium that would be constructed at the fairgrounds in Pomona.

Ralph Hinds said the association will go ahead in the next few weeks to let the Raiders know that if they should decide to move from the Coliseum--where they have been in a dispute over aborted plans for refurbishment--when their lease expires in 1992, then the fairgrounds would like to be considered as a new site.

“We have not done anything as yet,” Hinds said. “This whole thing arose, as far as I know, on the (Bud) Furillo (radio talk) show, when some people suggested we do this, and then someone called us about it. So, we just want to let the Raiders know there would be some interest here.”

He added, however, that he has no desire to take the football team away from the Coliseum and that Pomona would only be an alternative in case the Raiders were contemplating a move away from Los Angeles altogether.

Earlier this year, the Coliseum Commission decided not to go through with a $9-million seating reconfiguration, and the Raiders announced that they were dropping plans to build 60 luxury suites, for about $8 million, on the Coliseum rim. Since then there has been speculation that the Raiders might decide to build their own stadium somewhere in the Los Angeles area.

That could involve land and building costs of $100 million or more.

One aspect of a Pomona deal might be a donation of the land to build the stadium, and possibly even some contribution toward the building costs by the fair association.

But Hinds said Friday it is too early to deal in details. “This is all very preliminary,” he said.