Damage to Coliseum Clouds Football Season : Quake: Some fear stadium may have to be torn down. A report on its status is expected in two weeks.

Earthquake damage to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is so extensive that the historic stadium might not be repaired in time for next fall’s football season, officials said Monday.

One Coliseum aide said that a structural engineer’s report is pending, but there is a possibility it might have to be demolished and rebuilt.

In any event, the officials now believe that the costs of reopening the stadium could vastly exceed the estimate of $35 million made last week.

Coliseum officials have not foreclosed the possibility of repairing and reopening the facility--which was red-tagged Sunday by city building inspectors--in time for the next football season, but they concede that time is short, and that work is contingent on a quick decision by federal authorities to assume most of the funding.

A spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Monday that consideration of Coliseum aid could take time, and added that earthquake-damaged schools would have a higher priority.

Complicating the Coliseum’s future were reports Monday in Eastern publications that the Raiders have been exploring a move from Los Angeles to either Hartford or Baltimore. Attendance at Raiders games in the recently completed season was often disappointing even though the stadium was renovated to make it more suitable for viewing football.

Hoping to bring an NFL franchise back to Baltimore, officials in Maryland have courted the Rams as well as the Raiders. Members of the Maryland Stadium Authority met in New York City on Jan. 20 with John Shaw, Rams executive vice president.

Shaw was asked to provide “a letter of interest” to satisfy local politicians that the Rams were seriously considering a move from Anaheim Stadium. But a source close to the Rams said it was unlikely that the club would provide the letter because it might limit the team’s negotiating position as they consider whether to leave Anaheim.

The Rams notified the city of Anaheim last month of their intention to invoke the escape clause in their Anaheim Stadium lease, but not until May 3. Under terms of the clause, the Rams would have to remain a tenant of the stadium for 15 months, or through the 1994 season.

With the announcement, the Rams became a target for not only Baltimore, but a number of other cities who are anxious to attract an NFL team such as St. Louis; Memphis, Tenn.; Hartford, Ct.; Sacramento and Pasadena.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles officials continued assessing the earthquake damage at the Coliseum.

During a tour of the stadium Monday, Don C. Webb, the Coliseum Commission’s project director for recent renovations of the facility, said a fairly complete report from structural engineers is expected in two weeks.

“A (crack) runs through the concourse, through the tunnels and into the base of the foundation,” Webb said. “What we don’t see is extremely important. The question is whether this (facility) can be fixed, or whether it will have to be demolished.”

But the principal structural engineer retained to assess the damage said he believes that demolition will not be necessary.

Nahih Youssef said, “Technically, the Coliseum still has capacity to withstand earthquakes. There is a lot of damage, but it is not all to the lateral earthquake resistance system of the building. There is some residual strength and we can build on that.

“There is a separation of the outer Coliseum wall from the superstructure,” Youssef said. “The outer structure was displaced differently from the inner side, where the seating is located. . . . But the structural integrity may not have been fatally compromised.”

Nonetheless, Youssef said, Saturday’s magnitude 5.0 aftershock caused additional damage at the Coliseum, and the $35-million estimate of damage made last week is too low.

“Repairs will take six months to a year,” once they begin, Youssef said.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana, who also toured the facility and has an engineering degree, said he believes the lower levels of the Coliseum are on “solid ground” and that most of the damage is confined to the “higher tier” at the concourse, or upper concessions and restroom level, and above.

“The higher tier will have to be taken down and replaced,” he said. “It’s going to be very expensive. But I think repairs are feasible, and we are applying to FEMA for funding.”

The incoming Coliseum Commission president, County Supervisors Chairwoman Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, said she had been informed “it would not necessarily be required to remove the entire upper tier.”

The Coliseum has no earthquake insurance, officials said, and no appreciable funds in reserve for repairs.

Jay Hagerman, the Coliseum’s general manager who was present for Monday’s tour, declared that everything is contingent on what the structural engineer reports about the severity of the damage.

As the tour drew to a close, Webb, Hagerman and Margaret Farnum, executive secretary to the Coliseum Commission, noticed for the first time that the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety had red-tagged the Coliseum. A sign posted on the outer fence at the peristyle end declared that it was unsafe to enter.

The sign said it had been posted at 11:30 a.m. Sunday.

Monday, the city’s chief building inspector, Russell Lane, said he took a team to the Coliseum on Sunday, but they were unable to enter the locked facility.

He said the judgment had been made to red tag the building based on cracks visible from the outside, and that city inspectors had yet to observe the inside.

Inside, the principal damage displayed Monday by Webb and Hagerman was a deep crack running the entire length of the upper level concourse, which the two officials said showed how the Coliseum’s outer wall had separated from the inner seating structure.

Gaps could be seen between sections of seating, and chunks of fallen concrete littered parts of the concourse.

In addition, the lower part of the stadium seating, built in the early 1920s, had sunk away several inches from the upper section, which was added for the 1932 Olympics.

There was also serious cracking of some pillars and beams in the Peristyle end of the stadium--the only facility in the world to have hosted two of the modern Olympic Games, and the site of a World Series and many important political and entertainment events.

“One problem we have is that different parts of the stadium moved in different directions,” Webb said.

Terry Hamlin, a spokesman for FEMA, stressed that fast action is necessary if there is to be any chance of getting the facility ready for next fall’s football games by the Los Angeles Raiders professional franchise and USC.

A USC spokesman said Monday the school will await the engineer’s report before commenting.

The Raiders did not return calls for comment.

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