L.A. Backs Using Funds From Suit on Coliseum

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday backed using public funds to renovate the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, but said the money should come from a special Coliseum Commission account and not from city funds collected from taxpayers.

The council voted 12 to 1 in favor of a concept in which the Coliseum Commission would use $15 million it won several years ago in a lawsuit against the National Football League as seed money for a scaled-down renovation. The renovation must be acceptable to the major Coliseum football tenants, the Raiders and USC, council members said.

Councilman Joel Wachs was the only council member voting against a motion by council President John Ferraro to use the Coliseum Commission funds. Wachs had introduced a motion opposing all expenditures of public funds for the renovation.

Last week, it was revealed that the Coliseum’s private managers, the Spectacor partnership, had backed out of renovating the 69-year-old stadium at a projected cost of $116 million. The firm said that poor economic conditions precluded it from securing private financing for the plan.

Since then, Coliseum commissioners have been trying to find other private financing, but some have said it may prove more feasible to use public funds already on hand, along with borrowed money, to finance a scaled-down renovation that could cost about $60 million.

It is unclear whether that amount would be sufficient to pay for lowering the playing field, restructuring seats to bring thousands of spectators closer to the action and building luxury boxes as envisioned in earlier renovation plans.

And it is not yet clear what the attitude of the Raiders and USC would be toward such a plan.

Ferraro took issue with Wachs on Tuesday after Wachs told the council that he favored a renovation of the stadium that would keep the Raiders in Los Angeles, but that public money should not be used.

A former star USC lineman, Ferraro said there “have not been many stadiums built lately in this country without the use of public funds.”

The next step, the council president said, ought to be “an attempt by the Coliseum commissioners to use some of their money to advance this project. These are public funds, it is true, but they belong to the Coliseum.”

In any event, he said, the council has no authority to block the Coliseum Commission from using money from its coffers.

Councilman Nate Holden, a city representative on the commission, said he believes the commission is moving toward using the money from the lawsuit to help finance the renovation.

The council member who represents the Coliseum area, Mark Ridley-Thomas, said he believes use of public money on the renovation would be “a responsible use of public resources” because a modern, successful Coliseum is vital to the economic rejuvenation of South Los Angeles.

But Wachs said he fears that if the Coliseum Commission borrows to help finance the renovation, the city could be held liable for losses if the commission takes in insufficient revenue to pay off the loan.

The Coliseum Commission is scheduled to discuss the matter at a meeting today.