L.A. Officials Angry Over Raiders’ Move to Irwindale : Antonovich Hopes to Keep Team

Confusion, anger and betrayal were voiced today by city and county officials over the intended move of the Los Angeles Raiders to the San Gabriel Valley town of Irwindale.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, at a packed news conference, said the lucrative deal struck between Raiders managing general partner Al Davis and Irwindale was one that the Coliseum Commission could never match. He added, however, that renewed attempts will be made to keep the Raiders in Los Angeles.

Noting that Davis won major concessions from Irwindale on gate receipts, television rights, training facilities and a new stadium, Antonovich told reporters in response to a question, “Who screwed up?”:

“No one. This is a matter of pure economics and not policy. It’s a matter of economics and not personality.”

The supervisor also sits as a member of the Coliseum Commission.

Expected Until 1991

But Antonovich and fellow Commissioner Richard Riordan added that they expect the Raiders to continue playing in the Coliseum until 1991 and will step up attempts to keep the National Football League team.

“I think that certainly the Irwindale transaction is not 100% certain, so it would benefit the Coliseum and the Raiders to keep communications open.. . . “ Riordan said.

“The thought of pledging over a quarter-billion dollars in taxpayers’ money to build and operate another stadium in the County of Los Angeles when we already have a first-class stadium--the home of two Olympic Games-- . . . just doesn’t make sense,” Antonovich said.

But generally the development was met with a blend of angry frustration over Davis’ decision to leave Los Angeles.

‘Let Him Go’

Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden, referring to Davis, said the Coliseum Commission should “let him go. L.A.’s the place, and if he doesn’t want to be here, get out of town. . . . I think we ought to call his bluff.”

Supervisor Ed Edelman said, “After all the effort to get the Raiders in the Coliseum, to see Al Davis sign an agreement with Irwindale upsets me to no end.” Edelman said he will try to block Irwindale’s efforts to line up 80 acres of undeveloped parkland, owned by the federal government but leased to the county, for a stadium parking lot.

“In no way am I going to, in any way, shape or form, going to help Irwindale get that parking lot,” Edelman said. Under the proposed deal, Irwindale has until Nov. 3 to resolve the parking lot issue.

Edelman was also critical of Irwindale’s payment of a $10-million, nonrefundable deposit to Davis, blasting it as a “gift of public funds.”

Rozelle Contacted

Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who was on the Coliseum Commission when the Raiders were asked to move from Oakland, said he contacted NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle this morning and asked him to consider sending Los Angeles an expansion team.

Hahn said that when overtures were being made to Davis to lure the Raiders to Los Angeles, “I took a lot of heat from the mayor of Oakland. He said, ‘If Al Davis will do it to us, he will do it to you,’ ” Hahn recalled.

“He was really a prophet, wasn’t he?”

Supervisors Deane Dana and Pete Schabarum, both Coliseum Commission members, were not available for comment.

Skepticism at City Hall

At City Hall, there was also skepticism that the Raiders’ decision to leave Los Angeles is final. At the regular meeting of the Los Angeles City Council, no one offered proposals on how the city might persuade the team to stay. But Council President John Ferraro asked for a study on restructuring the Coliseum Commission, which he said appears incapable of effectively managing the stadium.

Councilman Robert Farrell, whose district includes the Coliseum, insisted, “It is not over.” Farrell, an alternate member of the Coliseum Commission, said Davis’ agreement with Irwindale may just be “part of the process” of negotiations.