Council Warned Over Delays in Coliseum Renovation Funds

Coliseum Commission President William Robertson warned Tuesday that the Los Angeles Raiders could move if $4 million in public funds to renovate the Coliseum is not advanced to the stadium’s private managers, the Spectacor partnership.

Shortly after Robertson spoke before the Los Angeles City Council, two council members changed their votes on a motion passed unanimously in a joint committee meeting Monday, and the council voted 9 to 4 to postpone consideration of a motion urging the Coliseum Commission to delay making the $4-million grant.

The commission is scheduled to discuss the call by its private managers for use of public money at a meeting today, but Robertson said late Tuesday that no decision would be made.

In his message to the council, however, Robertson said there could be dire consequences if plans for the proposed Coliseum renovation do not proceed.

“Without the revenues generated by a professional football franchise, the Coliseum itself will deteriorate into an ugly relic, unsuitable for use,” Robertson said.

The commission president said that although the $4 million in question is from public funds, it is not taxpayers’ money. It is money the Coliseum collected from winning an antitrust judgment against the National Football League for trying to block the Raiders’ move from Oakland to Los Angeles a decade ago, he said.

Robertson also characterized giving the $4 million as an advance on a loan of $15 million that was originally to be given Spectacor for the renovation.

Three weeks ago, when the $4 million was first mentioned, Commissioner N. Matthew Grossman said that it was not part of a loan, but was money that the private managers would receive with no obligation to pay back. In a 1990 agreement with the commission, Spectacor pledged that the Coliseum renovation would be entirely privately financed.