Coliseum Will Talk With Raiders if Irwindale Deal Falls Through

A representative of the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission said Friday that the commission is willing to talk to the Los Angeles Raiders about the football team remaining in the Coliseum if the Raiders’ deal to move to Irwindale collapses, but not before.

In a carefully worded statement released after reports that Irwindale is encountering difficulties in arranging financing for a proposed new Raiders stadium and may be forced to abandon the project, commission attorney Marshall Grossman said:

“So long as Irwindale and the Raiders consider themselves contractually bound to one another, it would be premature for the Coliseum Commission to engage in discussions with the Raiders because the Coliseum Commission respects contractual agreements entered into by the Raiders or anybody else.

“If for any reason the Raider-Irwindale deal comes unglued, then the Coliseum Commission would be delighted to have discussions with the Raiders. The Coliseum Commission has valued the Raiders as a tenant and certainly the public interest would be well served by discussions of a continued relationship.”

Conspicuously absent from the Grossman statement was the fact that the commission and the Raiders are suing each other for alleged breach of their contract, the commission asking at least $57 million and the Raiders $9.5 million.

Scaled-Down Agreement

The commission is scheduled to vote Wednesday on ratification of a scaled-down private management agreement with the business partnership of MCA Inc.’s Music Entertainment Group and Spectacor Management.

Worked out primarily by Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum, who holds the swing vote on the commission, it would pay MCA/Spectacor a management fee but reserve key policy-making powers for the commission.

Irving Azoff, the executive in charge of MCA’s involvement in the matter, said Friday that under the new proposed terms of the agreement, the private managers are “specifically forbidden to talk with the Raiders unless the commission tells us to do so.”

Azoff said he will await any orders from the commission on new talks with the team but cautioned, “We’re not going to be calling any shots under the new deal.”

Raiders owner Al Davis announced plans to move to Irwindale last August after a bitter dispute with then-Coliseum Commission President Alexander Haagen over the collapse of plans to renovate the Coliseum.

Haagen remains on the commission, although he has stepped down as president. The new president, Supervisor Mike Antonovich, represents a more conciliatory position toward the Raiders than Haagen, but he recently proved unable to get the required two-thirds vote on the commission for a private management agreement that would have allowed MCA/Spectacor to negotiate on its own with the Raiders.