Coliseum Chief Shows Off Letters in Blaming Davis

Coliseum Commission President Alexander Haagen has given his fellow commissioners documents that he says show Los Angeles Raiders owner Al Davis, and not Haagen or the commission, is to blame for the collapse of a Coliseum renovation plan last spring.

Haagen in a closed commission session Wednesday supplied the other commissioners with copies of letters from three banks that show the banks would not make loans for renovating the Coliseum unless the Raiders provided broad repayment guarantees.

It was Davis’ refusal to agree to either post a cash repayment guarantee or, as suggested by two of the banks, extend the team’s Coliseum lease beyond its 1991 termination date that was primarily responsible for the loans not being made and the work not going forward, Haagen told his colleagues, according to commission sources.

The letters from the Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Security Pacific and an accompanying written explanation from Haagen were said to constitute the heart of Haagen’s argument that it is Davis, and not himself or the Coliseum Commission, who initiated the crisis that led to the Raiders’ decision to leave the Coliseum for Irwindale.

Haagen declined public comment on the matter Thursday in accord with the advice of commission attorneys and some fellow commissioners. At least three commission sources, however, confirmed that Haagen distributed the letters, all addressed to him in his capacity as commission president, and that he blamed Davis for the failure of the renovations to go through.

When Davis announced last Friday that he was moving the Raiders, he said he began to explore such a move only after the Coliseum Commission reneged on its renovation promises to him. He said nothing about refusing to meet any requested bank guarantees.

John Herrera, a Raiders senior executive and negotiator, said the team would decline comment.

Copies of the Wells Fargo, Security Pacific and Bank of America letters distributed by Haagen were obtained by The Times.

The Wells Fargo letter, dated March 30, said that before the bank would provide any loan to the Coliseum, the Raiders would either have to “provide an irrevocable standby letter of credit in favor of the bank, drawn on a bank acceptable to the bank, in the amount of $11 million or sign a non-cancelable lease extension with the commission for use of the Coliseum through the commission’s June 30, 2003, fiscal year.”

Bank Requirement

The Security Pacific letter, also written March 30, said that before making a loan, the bank had to be in a position of assuming that the Raiders’ Coliseum lease would be extended and that “provisions protecting against non-renewal” would have to be provided.

“From the Raiders, security can be provided by an irrevocable letter of credit, drawn on a bank acceptable to Security Pacific, or cash collateral deposited with Security Pacific or a combination of the above,” the Security Pacific letter added.

The Bank of America letter, also dated March 30, called for the Raiders and another Coliseum tenant, USC, to each provide a $2-million guarantee fund that could be tapped if the Coliseum fell behind in its loan payments.

In addition, the letter went on, the Bank of America “shall have the option to call (the) loan should any termination of lease or rental agreements occur between the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission and either the L.A. Raiders or USC” before the final 1995 maturity date of the proposed loan.

Haagen was said to have told his fellow commissioners that at no time would Davis or any other Raider official agree to provide such guarantees or lease extensions, and therefore there was never any real opportunity for getting the loan necessary to do the Coliseum renovation work.

Lucrative Offer

Haagen was also reported to have suggested that Davis may have orchestrated the events of last spring to provide himself with the excuse for leaving the Coliseum, if a lucrative offer, such as the one from Irwindale, were made to him.

“We had 12 separate meetings with Davis,” Haagen told one person. “We never indicated to him that we didn’t want to do the work. But we didn’t have the money, and we didn’t have the time, and finally, we never had a satisfactory plan. All we said, finally, was, ‘Let’s wait until next year when we have the money and do it in an orderly and proper manner.’ ”

Now, he said, in light of what has happened since last spring, “I just wonder if we had done all that work, whether in 1991 Davis would have made further demands and left anyhow. One thing that was sure last spring in our discussions with the banks: Davis wasn’t willing to extend his lease.”

Meanwhile in Irwindale Thursday, the City Council unanimously approved amendments made last week in the memorandum of agreement between the city and the Raiders.