Officials, NFL Huddle on Repairs to Coliseum : Stadium: Football commissioner and Raiders representative are assured that quake-damaged facility will be ready for fall season.

With work beginning at last on repairing the historic peristyle at the earthquake-damaged Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, high-ranking Coliseum officials met Friday with the commissioner of the National Football League and a representative of the Raiders to assure them the stadium will be ready for football in September.

The president of the Coliseum Commission, Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and the repair project director, Don C. Webb, sought to persuade NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, NFL attorney Frank Rothman and Raiders attorney Amy Trask that the repair is proceeding so well that the team need not move to Oakland or anyplace else.

“We told them the stadium would be ready, the full stadium, not just 50,000 seats, but the normal Raider seating capacity of 68,000,” Burke said after the conclusion of the meeting in her office.

Trask later expressed some satisfaction with the meeting.

“I’m guardedly optimistic about our situation,” the team’s attorney said. “It is apparent that the NFL, (Los Angeles) Mayor (Richard Riordan) and Supervisor Burke agree with the Raiders that this community deserves a state-of-the-art facility which places it at least on a par with communities throughout the country.

“That state-of-the-art facility can be the centerpiece of a cleaned-up and vibrant Exposition Park neighborhood,” she added.

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Burke reported no commitments on the part of either Tagliabue or Trask that the Raiders--who have yet to send out season ticket applications--would remain at the Coliseum.

“Mr. Tagliabue listened, and he asked us questions about the progress,” Burke said. “He didn’t question that we were serious. His (staff) people have gone through and reviewed the ongoing work. Amy Trask said she hoped we could starting talking about unifying the city, with all its racial and ethnic groups, behind the team.”

Tagliabue could not be reached Friday for comment on the talks.

Webb, in an interview earlier in the day outlining the progress of the $42-million repair at the stadium, said he felt the Raiders have to decide whether to send out the season ticket applications no later than June 15.

Reporting that team officials have visited the Coliseum to see how the work is proceeding, Webb said he believes that the team’s managing general partner, Al Davis, views sending out the applications as the key decision about playing in the stadium this fall.

But, he added, the Raiders have expressed concerns that even if the repair is mostly complete, the public may still feel that the stadium has safety problems. Webb said he is confident there will not be safety problems.

Raider representatives have also said they fear that some concession booths may not be ready and that concession income, as well as attendance at Raider games, could go down, Webb said.

Furthermore, they remain determined to get commitments from the Coliseum Commission for long-term improvements at the Coliseum, including the construction of luxury boxes, he said.

This year, if the Raiders went to Oakland, the team could make more money in the short term, but it would probably never come back to Los Angeles, and it would not fare as well financially in the long term, Webb asserted.

Burke said Tagliabue had told her the NFL is interested in seeing inner-city stadiums, such as the Coliseum, “brought up to the standard of other stadiums,” presumably with luxury boxes.

“We assured them that that was our goal,” Burke said. “I explained to everyone there that we have always had a plan, first to lower the field, which we have done, then to build new concession booths and then to building the boxes. There has never been any question in our mind that would be done.”

But, Webb said Friday, formal negotiations with the Raiders, looking forward for a long-term contract for the team to play at the Coliseum and a commission commitment to secure a loan to build the boxes, have not yet begun.

During a tour he conducted of the Coliseum, the project director said a labor force of 600 is working on shifts around the clock on repairing the facility. He expressed confidence that even the elaborate peristyle repairs will be finished by the first scheduled game, between USC and Washington, Sept. 3. The Raiders’ home opener is Sept. 11.

In the peristyle, 12-inch core holes are being drilled down the middle of 24 existing columns, which will then be refilled with steel and high-strength concrete, Webb said.

Another part of the peristyle strengthening will be the installation of four shear walls to further secure the central arch, he said.

While peristyle work is under way, Webb said no final decision has been made about what to do with the earthquake-battered press box.

Webb left no doubt that he feels it should be demolished. He expressed hope this could be done, and temporary press seating provided, before September, with a new press box built later. In any event, Webb said, the press box, as is, can never be used again.

On Friday, the Coliseum looked quite torn up, with huge drilling equipment still at work in the upper concourse level, drilling the piles to anchor the stadium superstructure to the earth below, scores of workers pouring concrete in already completed areas, and scores of others working on replacing thousands of damaged seats.

But Webb said the essential parts of the work to reopen the stadium will be complete within 85 days.