24-Hour Ultimatum to Raiders : Oakland Threatens to Call It Off

Oakland authorities have given Raiders owner Al Davis until the end of the day Friday to say whether he will return the team to Oakland.

If Davis doesn’t say yes, a meeting Monday at which the City Council and the Alameda County Board of Supervisors were supposed to formally approve the deal will be canceled, the chairman of the Alameda board, Don Perata, said today.

Perata added that if the meeting is canceled, he believes the Oakland offer to the Raiders will be dead, leaving Davis negotiating only with Los Angeles Coliseum representatives on future playing arrangements for his team.

“I believe that I will receive the assurances that I have asked for, that (Mayor Lionel Wilson) has asked for, which will allow us to go into the Monday night meeting with the knowledge and assurance that if we vote to return the Raiders . . . we will have a deal,” Perata said.

“It is now coming down to just a single word answer from Mr. Davis, yes or no,” he said.

At the Raider offices in El Segundo, Davis had no public comment.

Meanwhile, a representative of the Los Angeles Coliseum private management team that has been trying to reach agreement with Davis on a plan to keep the team in Los Angeles reported little progress in a negotiating session Wednesday night with Davis.

The representative, Irving Azoff, said that Ed Snider, head of Spectacor Management Group and the lead negotiator for the Coliseum private managers, continues to have the impression that Los Angeles has more time to barter.

This may be, Perata said today in an interview, but if Los Angeles does, it will mean that the Oakland deal is off.

Perata said Oakland authorities are determined that they not be placed in the position Sacramento officials found themselves in after approving partial city financing of an offer to move the Raiders there, only to have months pass without any word from Davis whether he intended to go there.

The Sacramento City Council voted to let the city’s offer expire last week.

Perata said that Oakland authorities notified Davis of their Friday deadline at a closed-door meeting with him in Oakland Tuesday night.

“I very clearly set forth for Davis our timetable and why we considered it irrevocable,” he said. “He understood it. He said he understood our position.”

The Oakland offer--including a franchise fee to be paid the team, guarantees of $28 million a year in ticket revenues, other fees and $53.5 million to expand the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum--totals $660 million. City officials notified Davis this week, however, that $53.5 million might not be enough to fully finance the projected stadium expansion, and they asked the Raiders to agree to pay the rest of the costs, estimated at up to $10 million.

The Los Angeles offer to Davis reportedly includes about $70 million in a franchise fee, and guarantees a new or renovated Los Angeles Coliseum and an undisclosed slice of revenues from luxury boxes and club seating to be constructed at the Coliseum.