Coliseum Managers Make ‘Final Offer’ to Raiders--Again : Football: The latest proposal calls for a 20-year lease wrapped in a $165-million package.

Detailing what they called their “final offer” to the Raiders, Los Angeles Coliseum private managers said Thursday it calls for the team to sign a 20-year lease in exchange for a $145-million stadium renovation, $10 million in advance cash payments and forgiveness of $10 million the team might owe the Coliseum Commission.

The offer is the latest development in a decade of wrangling over the terms under which the Raiders could play in various places. There have been numerous “final offers” not only from Los Angeles but also from Oakland, Sacramento and Irwindale.

According to this Los Angeles offer, Coliseum reconstruction, within the existing walls of the 67-year-old facility, would begin in early 1992 and, officials hope, be finished in time for the 1993 season. The Raiders and USC would have to play their 1992 season elsewhere, perhaps in Dodger Stadium, or, for USC, perhaps in Anaheim Stadium.

The $10 million the Raiders would get from Spectacor Management Group, the private managers, would be largely refundable, over a 10-year-period, only if failure to secure an acceptable environmental impact report, or an environmentally based lawsuit, blocked the project, said Tony Tavares, Spectacor president.

The money would be forfeited and the Raiders would be free to go elsewhere if Spectacor Management was unable to secure financing for the project within the next 20 months.

The new Coliseum would have 150 to 225 luxury boxes, 15,000 club seats and an overall seating capacity of 70,000 for Raiders games and 85,000 for USC games, Tavares said.

This Los Angeles offer is quite similar to the various offers that have been discussed in the past.

Where it varies is in the terms surrounding the $10-million advance payment, the 20-month performance deadline, and the explicit forgiveness of the $10 million as part of the Coliseum Commission’s agreement to dismiss its $58-million breach-of-contract suit against the Raiders.

The $10 million to be forgiven has to do with a $6.7-million “loan,” later said by some commissioners to be a gift, to the Raiders for moving to Los Angeles eight years ago. That sum has grown to about $10 million with accrued interest.

Originally, the Raiders were supposed to build luxury boxes with the money. Under the new offer, they could simply keep it, and the luxury boxes would be built by the private managers, who would lease them for long terms. The Raiders would get a share of the lease revenues, as would other Coliseum tenants.

Critics, including Los Angeles County supervisors and Coliseum Commission members Mike Antonovich and Deane Dana, said this week the $10-million forgiveness would constitute a gift of public funds to the Raiders. But, even so, the money changed hands years ago, and, realistically, there was never much hope that the money would be repaid.

The only public Coliseum funds in the new offer would be a long-term loan of about $20 million that the Coliseum Commission received in damages from the National Football League for its attempt to block the Raiders move from Oakland. That money would be made available for Coliseum reconstruction. All other reconstruction funds would come from Spectacor Management or partners it might later sign on, Tavares said.

Tavares expressed optimism that Davis would accept the offer, although neither he nor anyone else interviewed in the Coliseum hierarchy Thursday was sure that the acceptance would come by next Tuesday’s deadline set by the Coliseum Commission.

The deadline, said to be the idea of Commission President Matthew Grossman and Commissioner Richard Riordan, is the latest of many deadlines set for team owner Al Davis by Los Angeles, Oakland and Sacramento negotiators in recent years.

Davis has never met any of them, and there were suggestions Thursday that setting deadlines is not an effective way to deal with him.

Commissioner Bill Robertson questioned whether the deadline would hold if Davis did not meet it, and he suggested that it could be extended, just as Oakland recently extended its deadline to Davis. Grossman, however, said it could not be extended without going back to the commission.

Another commissioner, who asked not to be identified, said he felt that “Davis runs a hell of a risk of this offer not being renewed if he doesn’t accept it by Tuesday.”

But the commissioner added, “You always say, in such talks, ‘If you don’t do it by noon tomorrow, it’s dead.’ But then you always weasel out of it.”

There was no comment from the Raiders.

Tavares said that if the Raiders sign up, an environmental impact report will go forward immediately, architects will be retained to do the detailed plans, a mock-up luxury suite will be constructed for marketing purposes and within 12 months, he is confident, Spectacor Management will be ready to seek bank financing.

He said advance indications from bankers about financing have been favorable.