Raiders, Coliseum Talks Stall : Davis Reportedly Refuses to Agree to Certain Legal Limit

A negotiating session between Los Angeles Coliseum private management representatives and Los Angeles Raiders owner Al Davis was canceled Wednesday amid reports of a bitter legal disagreement.

The break in talks that had only informally gotten under way put efforts to keep the Raiders playing in the Coliseum in limbo and came at a time when Oakland authorities have a draft of a tentative agreement to move the football team back to Oakland on Davis’ desk.

Exhibition Game

The Raiders are playing an exhibition game against the Houston Oilers in the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Aug. 26, and Oakland officials hope that a permanent return of the team to Oakland can be announced then. Even if this happened, however, the Raiders would probably play their regular-season games in Los Angeles this year and possibly stay through 1991.

Sacramento and Irwindale are also bidding for the Raiders, but the Sacramento talks are reportedly hung up over Sacramento demands for a share in the ownership of the team, and Irwindale stadium financing continues to be extremely iffy.

Los Angeles Coliseum officials said their talk with Davis was canceled after the Raiders chief refused to sign a document stating that whatever was said in the discussions could not be used by either party in the Coliseum Commission’s pending $57-million breach-of-contract lawsuit against the Raiders.

Frank Discussions

The purpose of the document, prepared by Coliseum Commission attorney Marshall Grossman, was to free the negotiators to speak frankly without worrying that what they said could end up hurting them in court if no settlement were reached.

When Davis would not sign the one-page document, Coliseum Commission President Richard Riordan and Grossman instructed private managers Irving Azoff of MCA Inc. and Antonio Tavaras of Spectacor Management Group not to meet with him.

Grossman said later he suspects that Davis may be trying to use talks with Coliseum Commission representatives “as a means of enhancing bids from Oakland and Sacramento.

“He could be using us as a foil and at the same time be hoping to buttress his case against our lawsuit,” Grossman said. “I can only conclude he never had any good faith intention in the first place.” Otherwise, he suggested, Davis would have been willing to sign the document he prepared.

No Comment

Neither Davis nor the Raider organization had any comment. Through weeks of reports that the Raiders might be about to jump to Sacramento or Oakland, Davis has had nothing to say publicly on the matter and reportedly has given no reason for refusing to sign the letter.

Both Azoff and Riordan expressed disappointment that the Coliseum-Raider talks had been broken off.

“Davis is willing to meet with us, willing to listen,” Azoff said. “At least, he’s been talking to us. This now stops the talk.”

But in the dispute over signing the document, Azoff said, he had concluded that “Davis is unreasonable, Grossman is unreasonable and (Coliseum Commissioner) Pete Schabarum (a longtime hard-liner against concessions to the Raiders) is unreasonable.”

Riordan commented, “Our lawyers are telling us that if we meet with him (Davis), we might do serious damage to our legal position. I’d really like to meet with Davis. If I owned the Coliseum, I’d take a chance on it. But I don’t. I have a public duty and I have to take the advice of our lawyers.”

Reported Offers

Officials said last week that the Coliseum representatives were prepared to offer Davis a largely privately financed $125-million reconstruction of the Coliseum, plus $30 million in private cash to stay in Los Angeles. Oakland is reportedly offering Davis a publicly financed $36-million to $50-million expansion of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum plus $32 million in cash.

The Oakland offer was put in the form of a tentative agreement over the weekend by a team of lawyers and given to Raiders officials. So far, there has been no public response.