Raiders in Hand, Bradley Seeks Soccer’s World Cup
Mayor Tom Bradley said Wednesday, the day after the Raiders agreed to keep playing football in Los Angeles, that the city’s next top sports priority is to secure the finals of the 1994 World Cup.
Bradley, in a telephone interview from London, also revealed that he gave Raiders team owner Al Davis his personal guarantee at a key stage of the negotiations that he and other city authorities will do everything they can to expedite an environmental impact review, thus clearing the way for the promised $145-million Los Angeles Coliseum renovation that is the key element in the Raiders deal.
“Last Friday, we brought the two parties, Davis and Spectacor (the Coliseum’s private managers) together,” Bradley said. “There were some minor questions remaining.
“But at the end of the meeting Davis stayed behind and he said to me: ‘I want to hear it from you. Is this thing going to work? Is the EIR (environmental impact report) something you think we can do? Will we have the support of you and the city?’
“I said, ‘Absolutely,’ ” the mayor recounted. “He said, ‘That’s the bottom line.’ ”
Bradley, who is in London promoting Los Angeles tourism, said he plans to play a very active role in the bid process for the World Cup, soccer’s premier event, observing: “We’re in the hunt now, and it’s a question of whether we will be able to put together a good bid for the final. We want it, we deserve it, and I know that we can do it.
World Cup organizing officials warmly welcomed Bradley’s commitment. One official said Los Angeles has “been lagging behind” four Florida bidders in a competition that is to culminate with a selection made by the international soccer federation at the end of 1991.
In the aftermath of Tuesday’s dramatic announcement that the Raiders are staying in the city, there were these other developments:
* Los Angeles Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley opened the way for both the Raiders and USC to play in Dodger Stadium during the remodeling of the Coliseum. This could be in the fall of 1992.
O’Malley said in a statement: “Neither USC nor the Raiders has approached us, but if the mayor asks us to accommodate either of those teams on a short-term basis, while the Coliseum is being remodeled, we would try to accommodate them, providing it does not disrupt the baseball season.”
* Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball franchise, possibly stung by a commitment in the Raiders deal to finish Coliseum renovations before pursuing construction of a replacement for the aging Sports Arena where his team plays, announced that he is looking at several new sites away from the Coliseum complex for a stadium in Los Angeles.
“Top officials from (the) Ogden (Corp.) and the Madison Square Garden Corp. will be meeting with Clipper officials this month to evaluate specific parcels for development,” Sterling said. “In addition, the leading architectural firm of Ellerbe Becket will be meeting with (us) next Tuesday to discuss design proposals for the new arena.” He said the new arena would cost $150 million, seat 22,000 and contain 200 luxury boxes.
* Jay Rounds, executive director of the Los Angeles Conservancy, said his organization is ready to work with Bradley, Spectacor and the Raiders to “find historically sensitive ways to make the needed improvements to the Coliseum” and has already agreed to serve on the steering committee that is arranging a design workshop for December on the matter.
“We’re pleased that the Raiders have chosen to stay in Los Angeles,” Rounds said. “We feel that the Coliseum, like any other historic building, needs to be used to be preserved.” He said the design workshop, being set up by Bradley aides, would hear public testimony.
The mayor, commenting on the agreement, lauded the efforts of his deputy, Mark Fabiani, and one of his Coliseum Commission appointees, labor leader William R. Robertson, in expediting resolution of issues between the Raiders and Spectacor and remarked that “perseverance” was the key element in finally landing the Raiders for a second time.
As regards Davis, Bradley remarked: “There was good electricity that flowed between the two of us from the first time I met him. I’ve never had a difference with Al Davis. Well, maybe one. The only time we differed was that day he accepted Oakland (last March).”
Bradley’s vow of an all-out bid for the World Cup finals comes at a time when a combined Coliseum-Rose Bowl bid for World Cup games is just getting under way.
A spokesman for the World Cup organizing committee said Wednesday that about two dozen cities appear to be in the competition and that initial recommendations of between eight and 12 sites for games will be made to the international soccer federation, known as FIFA, in the spring of 1991. He said FIFA might choose sites in June, 1991, but probably would not allocate games, including a site for the semifinals and final, until the end of 1991.
Los Angeles attorney Alan Rothenberg, president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, who is expected next week to be named chairman of the World Cup Organizing Committee, said Wednesday that Bradley’s statement was “music to my ears. . . . If that is the highest priority of the mayor, then I’m sure he’ll see that the considerations we require would be met,” he said.
However, Scott Letellier, executive director of the organizing committee, said that “some of the Florida communities are ahead at this point in the bidding process.” He noted that the state of Florida has already committed more than $1 million in public funds in bid deposits.
