Raiders Look at Irwindale Gravel Pit as Stadium Site

Irwindale, a tiny industrial city once known only for its rock and gravel pits and summertime smog, has made a strong bid to become the new home of the Los Angeles Raiders.

On Saturday, city officials took Raiders owner Al Davis on a helicopter tour of a proposed stadium site: a huge gravel and sand pit along the 210 Freeway. After surveying the site, Davis lunched with city officials and discussed details of an offer by Irwindale to finance a 70,000-seat stadium with $100 million in recently issued bonds.

John Herrera, a senior Raiders administrator who accompanied Davis on the tour, said team engineering consultants will take a closer look at the east San Gabriel Valley site this week to determine the feasibility of constructing a stadium in an 80-acre, 160-foot deep pit.

But both Herrera and city officials cautioned that the talks were in the “exploratory stages” and that any publicity might detract from the negotiations.

“They made a proposal that warranted a look,” Herrera said. “But we’re just not that far along. It wouldn’t be fair at this point to characterize anyone’s position.”

The Raiders have explored a number of playing alternatives since plans collapsed in April for a $17-million seating reconfiguration of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the construction of luxury suites.

In recent weeks, Raiders officials have talked with the City of Carson about building a football stadium there and with the City of Pasadena about playing in the Rose Bowl. But the 180-acre site in Carson is entangled in bankruptcy proceedings and has $45 million in claims against it. And the Rose Bowl is seen as unattractive because of its age and Davis’ desire to have a stadium that he can call his own.

Other rumored sites have been as far flung as New York, Sacramento, Pomona and Hollywood Park.

Building a stadium 20 miles east of Los Angeles in the dusty, pockmarked City of Irwindale would seem, at first glance, improbable. With slightly more than 1,000 residents, Irwindale has long been known for its rich deposits of rock and gravel that have provided the concrete for much of Southern California. But city officials, buoyed by industrial development that has swelled city and redevelopment agency coffers from $25,000 a decade ago to $35 million today, believe that the Raiders would be hard pressed to find a more attractive package.

In a letter to Davis two weeks ago, Irwindale Community Redevelopment Agency head Charles Martin outlined a proposal that would provide the Raiders with a low-interest, $100-million loan to build a stadium. Martin said the loan would come from a recently issued $100-million bond or an issue of separate stadium bonds. Martin said a study of the site would be jointly undertaken by the CalMat Co., a building material firm that owns the land, and the Birtcher Corp,, a construction and development company. Both firms have committed $50,000 for the study, Martin said.

In addition to easy financing, city officials said, the proposed site is attractive because of its access to two major freeways, the 210 and the 605. The 80-acre pit was the site of a planned waste-to-energy trash burning plant before community opposition halted that project in April.

“We feel we have a real shot, but it wouldn’t be fair to the Raiders or to the city if we said any more,” said Fred Lyte, development consultant for the agency, who declined to comment on the meeting.

Herrera said the Raiders have been contacted by a number of communities since the rift with the Coliseum became public. He denied that the team was negotiating with other cities in an attempt to exact more concessions out of the Coliseum management.

“We’re not using anybody to negotiate anything,” he said. “We’re just listening to people who are interested in having the Raiders come to their community. We’re not playing games.”