Rebuilding the Coliseum for the L.A. Raiders

I read with growing shock and revulsion of plans to tear down most of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to meet the needs of Davis and the Raiders.

The Coliseum is a historic and cultural landmark that cannot and should not be replaced just so the Raiders will stay as a tenant. The Coliseum is a perfectly good multipurpose facility. It is not broken--it does not need to be fixed, let alone razed.

The public and private sector people proposing this travesty would spend $125 million to tear down a perfectly good facility and build something else in its place. On top of that, they would give that personification of greed, Al Davis, $60 million to occupy the new Coliseum. I would think that the Coliseum Commission and its private managers could find something better and more useful to do with $185 million.

Let Davis take his losing and overpaid thugs to Sacramento, Oakland, or whatever city will have them and leave the Coliseum as it is. USC deserves better than to spend two years playing home games elsewhere so that Davis can have a new toy. If the proposed insanity does come to pass, I hope the spirits of every athlete who ever competed at the Coliseum will haunt Davis the rest of his life.

GARY A. LYNCH

Los Angeles