Kick That Block! : Thinking creatively about keeping the Raiders in the Coliseum

Everyone agrees that the 70-year-old Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, near Downtown, needs to be rescued from decline--but in recent years something always has kept that from happening. First, contractual obligations related to the 1984 Olympics prevented major changes in the facility. Then there was a major recession from which California only now is starting to recover. Finally, last January, came the big earthquake.

So it is no small achievement that the stadium has continued to operate profitably and that before the Jan. 17 temblor some improvements indeed were made--among them new locker and restroom facilities and prime seats closer to the playing field. That says a lot about the persistence of the Coliseum Commission, which oversees the stadium.

But rebuilding from the earthquake is by far the toughest challenge the commission has faced. It is reassuring that the contractors involved in the $42-million rebuilding project promise that repairs will be complete when the football season starts in September. But it is even more reassuring to have learned recently that Coliseum commissioners are trying to find imaginative ways of keeping their chief tenants, the Los Angeles Raiders, who are being wooed by several cities with newer stadiums.

The commission plans to offer Raiders owner Al Davis what amounts to a rent-free deal for the coming season. At first glance that might seem a giveaway Los Angeles can ill-afford, in that the Raiders have paid roughly $800,000 a year. But the key is the creative way that money would be used. The Raiders would pay into a fund set aside for construction of luxury boxes, a key improvement needed to keep the old stadium competitive--and an improvement that Davis has been pressing for. While $800,000 is hardly enough to build the boxes, it could be used to leverage loans, bonds and other financing.

Here’s hoping that Davis, sorely tested by past promises to build luxury boxes that didn’t pan out, accepts the offer. If he does, it could be that rarest of situations in sports--a win-win deal.