Voters Might Get to Decide Raiders Move : Oakland: Angered by the price tag for getting back the football team, some residents say they will try to put the issue on the November ballot.

Some Oakland residents, angry about the $602.5-million offer to bring the Raiders back to their original home, are talking about trying to put the issue on the city’s November ballot.

Opponents, led by prominent lawyers and political activists, said Tuesday the financial agreement approved by the City Council and Alameda County Board of Supervisors puts public funds at risk.

“There is some movement toward a referendum. It’s in its formative stages right now, but there is a movement,” said Robert Schwartz, an Oakland lawyer who spoke against the pact’s approval during a noisy Monday night meeting.

If the issue is placed on the ballot and overturned by voters, the agreement worked out over 14 months of negotiations could collapse. Approval for bond sales to finance an “operating loan” to the NFL team and stadium improvements was required by both the city and the county.

Opponents would have to collect the signatures of 10% of Oakland’s 197,193 registered voters to put the referendum on the ballot.

While opponents talked referendum, fans who had remained loyal for nearly a decade rejoiced and sported silver-and-black Raider hats, T-shirts and jackets. They lit up the Oakland Coliseum switchboard to ask about tickets, even though the team may have to honor its lease in Los Angeles through 1991.

The Raiders enjoyed 12 consecutive years of sellouts in Oakland before heading south, and the team will need fans to show their support again at the Coliseum cash register. They will need to fill an average of 90% of an enlarged 65,500-seat stadium if the city and county are to break even on the deal.

Local officials, although confident of good ticket sales, admitted they approached the transaction with the Raiders differently from another business operation.

“It wasn’t a straight business deal for a profit motive,” Assistant City Manager Ezra Rapport said Tuesday. “There were a lot of intangibles. It’s about community spirit, pride, identification.”

Davis plans to go to Oakland to sign the deal within the next two weeks.