Raiders Haven’t Paid ’88 Rent, Coliseum Charges in New Suit

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission sued its professional football tenant, the Los Angeles Raiders, again Thursday, this time claiming that the team has failed to pay its rent for games played in the stadium during the 1988 season.

The commission more than a year ago filed a breach-of-contract suit for at least $57 million against the team in connection with its announced plan to move to suburban Irwindale. But pending construction of a stadium there, the team has continued to play its games in the Coliseum under a lease that does not expire until the end of the 1991 season.

According to terms of the Coliseum lease, the Raiders are supposed to pay 8% of a home game’s admission receipts within 10 days of the game.

But according to the suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court Thursday, the team has not paid anything to the stadium under the clause for either the exhibition games or the regular season games. The amount in arrears is now estimated at about $1 million.

Commission attorney Frank Kaplan said Thursday night that he did not wish to discuss the latest suit further. He said the commission was reluctant to undertake it.

The only Raiders representative who could be reached for comment said he knew nothing about the suit.

The lawsuit alleges:

“Despite repeated demands, the Raiders have failed and refused to pay the Coliseum Commission any of the rentals due it for preseason and regular season games played by the Raiders in the Coliseum in 1988.”

The suit also claims that the lease has been breached and that the team, therefore, is barred from renewing its lease, according to a clause that allowed three five-year options extending to the year 2006, after the 10-year regular term expires in 1991.

Raiders owner Al Davis has frequently expressed great bitterness toward the Coliseum Commission, which he charges reneged on a deal to renovate the stadium at the same time the Raiders were to construct luxury boxes on the rim of the facility.

Commission attorneys have obtained a Superior Court ruling that there was no such legally binding deal, but on Aug. 20, 1987, even before that ruling, Davis announced plans to move to Irwindale.

The Irwindale deal, however, has been stymied for more than 15 months by a court order holding up arrangements for building the stadium and for a final contract between Irwindale and the Raiders until an environmental impact report on the project is found acceptable by the court.

The report was formally certified Thursday night by the Irwindale City Council and an attorney for the city said an attempt will be made to get the court order lifted by the end of February.

The Raiders were involved in rent disputes with Oakland authorities before the team moved to Los Angeles in 1982.