Coliseum Plan May Be in Jeopardy

Participants in negotiations to put the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum under private management say an agreement remains elusive and the entire idea may even be in jeopardy.

Representatives for MCA Inc./Spectacor, the business partnership bidding for the management contract, have privately expressed frustration with the pace of the continuing talks. Now, even Coliseum Commission representatives express impatience.

Negotiators vary almost daily in assessing where the talks stand as hard-nosed lawyers and consultants debate the details of an “agreement in principle” that officials said was reached weeks ago.

Meanwhile, some commissioners question whether the often-divided, nine-member panel will ratify a contract, if one is arrived at. Six commission votes are necessary for ratification.

Alexander Haagen, staying on the commission despite earlier statements that he would leave when his term as president was up in February, has for several weeks been organizing a fight to prevent ratification.

Haagen said this week that the commission may well be better off to market the Coliseum and Sports Arena on its own instead of relying on a private manager who would pass along only a percentage of the profits. He also contended that private management would prove disruptive to the operation of the adjacent museums in Exposition Park.

At this point it seems likely that the other two state representatives on the tripartite city-county-state commission, Matthew Grossman and Fred Riedman, will be with Haagen. The Board of the Museum of Science and Industry, which appointed the three to the Coliseum Commission, has already voted to instruct them to vote as a bloc, and Grossman, who serves on the commission’s negotiating committee, has been taking positions similar to Haagen’s in the negotiations.

In addition, one of the county representatives on the commission, Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum, so far is uncommitted and skeptical about putting the Coliseum under private management, and one of the city representatives, Los Angeles City Councilman Gilbert Lindsay, has raised questions about the length of the management agreement.

All this has made MCA officials distinctly nervous. Irving Azoff, head of MCA’s Music Entertainment Group and the point man for the MCA/Spectacor partnership in the bid, has occasionally said in recent weeks that he is on the verge of calling it quits.

MCA has brought in a new attorney, Bob Adler, to negotiate details of the agreement, and Adler has been insisting on repayment guarantees in case a management agreement were to be canceled early. These demands have raised hackles on the Coliseum side.

“Their attorneys (MCA/Spectacor’s) have brought up a lot of issues,” said Joel Ralph, Coliseum general manager. “A lot of things are quite different in the latest draft they submitted. It’s a rather one-sided agreement right now. So there will be some delay. We must be prudent.”

Ralph said that commission attorneys have worked out a “very complex counteroffer,” which will be discussed today at a meeting of the principals.