Raiders Explore Carson, Rose Bowl Options

The Los Angeles Raiders are talking with the City of Carson about building a football stadium there and have made “very preliminary approaches” to the City of Pasadena about playing in the Rose Bowl, as the team’s rift with the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission continues, officials say.

Two senior Raiders administrators, Irv Kaze and John Herrera, visited the Rose Bowl on Thursday, asked for a seating manifest and inquired about openings in the stadium’s programming, said David Jacobs, the Pasadena city official responsible for the Rose Bowl.

But Jacobs emphasized that there have been no negotiations about the Raiders leaving the Coliseum and using the Rose Bowl. “It was preliminary,” he said of Thursday’s encounter. “It was probably the most preliminary conversation I’ve had with any promoter.”

Meanwhile, Carson officials confirmed to The Times that for the last two months, at their own initiation, they have been discussing with Raiders management the possibility of building a $75-million stadium on an old landfill and toxic dump near the intersection of the San Diego and Harbor freeways.

The impediments to the project, however, appear legion. According to Carson City Administrator Richard Gunnarson, the 180-acre site is now tied up in bankruptcy proceedings and has $45 million in claims pending against it. Plans for cleaning up toxics, mud and sludge would require state approval and could cost $50 million, and building access roads would cost another $10 million. Financing remains to be worked out.

The Raiders have been rumored to be exploring such other far-flung playing alternatives as Sacramento, New York and the Pomona Fairgrounds since plans collapsed April 15 for a seating reconfiguration of the Coliseum and the construction of luxury suites on the stadium’s rim.

Raiders owner Al Davis blamed Coliseum Commission President Alexander Haagen and the commission majority for the failure to proceed with the projects, which would have cost a total of $17 million. Haagen said there was neither the time nor the financing to do the seating reconfiguration this year, and he expressed disappointment that Davis decided not to go ahead with the luxury suites.

Since then, the two men have scarcely spoken to each other. Friday, Raiders spokesman Kaze, asked for comment on the Carson stadium and Rose Bowl reports, said: “We have not initiated one thing with anybody. Anybody interested has come to us. We have not gone out to solicit anybody.”

Kaze added that as far as the Raiders are concerned, it is “certain” that they will play in the Coliseum this fall, where they have a lease to play through the 1991 season.

“We have the season ticket renewals out,” he said. “The second payments are due the beginning of June.”

As for Thursday’s Rose Bowl visit, Kaze dismissed it by saying: “An intermediary asked us to stop in. This was a courtesy call.”

The Raider spokesman cautioned, however, that the Raiders may be participating in talks of which he is unaware. Kaze said Davis would not agree to be interviewed about any such contacts.

Haagen, meanwhile, said those to whom the Raiders have been talking say they have been asked by the Raiders to tell him about the discussions. Kaze says this is not true, but Haagen is convinced it is a pressure tactic to scare him and his commission into thinking they are about to lose the Raiders.

“We have a great stadium, a great market that we’re serving,” the commission president said. “I just wonder if it would be improper for us to seek a new team after 1991. If he (Davis) is talking with others, why can’t we? If, in fact, the man does relocate at the end of his lease, I think we would be entitled to seek out a replacement.”

Nonetheless, Haagen said he hopes Davis will resume discussions with Coliseum representatives about the future of the stadium.

“We need a little help from him, just a little bit,” he remarked. “I’m going to try to bring the parties together. If I’m the culprit who’s keeping them apart, I certainly would step aside.”

Haagen said that the new Coliseum general manager, Joel Ralph, has written to Davis offering to discuss matters with him, but that Davis has not accepted the invitation. The Raiders, he said, sent no representatives to a reception welcoming Ralph, former manager of Veteran’s Stadium and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, to his new post.

Two commissioners on better terms with Davis, Richard Riordan and William Robertson, have also held periodic conversations with him in recent weeks.

Robertson, a Haagen critic and the commissioner who was instrumental in the negotiations that induced Davis to move to the Coliseum from Oakland, questioned Friday in an interview whether Haagen is really anxious to reach an accommodation with Davis.

“I certainly can understand why he (Davis) is looking around,” Robertson said. “If I were in his shoes, I’d be looking around too.”

Times staff writer George Stein contributed to this article.