ANALYSIS : Davis Finally Decides L.A. Isn’t So Bad : Pro football: After much speculation and posturing, he figures that the time isn’t right to move his Raiders.

So the Raiders aren’t leaving town, after all.

Well, they never were. Not unless they absolutely had to.

After battling his way from Oakland to Los Angeles through a gantlet of lawyers, politicians and bureaucrats, after spending months in a stuffy courtroom far from his beloved practice field, after defying and beating the powerful NFL and nemesis Pete Rozelle, Raider owner Al Davis was not about to pack up his organization and give up his territory, the largest market in the United States.

Especially not now.

With the Rams apparently ready to leave, this territory will belong solely to the Raiders.

Davis knows very well that the NFL is not about to operate without a franchise in Los Angeles. If both the Rams and the Raiders were to leave, it wouldn’t take long to fill the gap. Some team would move here faster than you can say Tinseltown.

Besides the vast number of potential buyers of tickets and team-related merchandise, there is the spotlight permanently focused on L.A. And the only thing owners of sports teams seem to like as much as making money is making headlines. If you can make it here, you’ll make it everywhere. Stars in L.A. tend to become national figures.

Davis wasn’t about to turn his back on all that and return to small-market Oakland, no matter how many sellouts he could get there.

He knows he can get even bigger sellouts here if he can put a winning team on the field. And he should be able to do that with the material he now has.

So what was the problem?

It was the same problem Davis has faced since arriving here in 1982. He wants luxury boxes and other improvements in the decaying Coliseum.

The first phase of that work was done last season with the removal of the track and the lowering of the field, bringing the seats closer to the action.

But optimism for the swift completion of that work ended, along with a lot of other dreams, at 4:31 a.m. on Jan. 17.

By the time the earth had stopped shaking, the Coliseum had suffered $42 million worth of damage.

That’s the estimated cost of the repair work still going on at a furious rate so it can be done before football season starts.

But Davis knew all this work would only get the 71-year-old stadium back to where it had been.

That wasn’t good enough. Davis believes he is entitled to the improvements.

Many think a city this size is entitled to even more, such as a brand new, state-of-the-art stadium like those enjoyed by far smaller metropolitan areas.

Davis couldn’t complain publicly. Not with all the money already being spent to repair the Coliseum. Not with the community still trying to repair schools and hospitals and freeways after the devastating quake.

Davis was sensitive, he was realistic, but he was also concerned about his own interests.

So he began applying pressure. A master of intimidation on the field, Davis knows how the power game is played.

He made a highly publicized visit to the Citrus Bowl in Orlando to allow the city fathers of that Florida city to make a case for the Raiders moving there.

Davis then negotiated an agreement with the city of Oakland for the Raiders to move back there for one year in case the Coliseum repairs weren’t completed.

He didn’t sign the agreement, but it was on his desk, tantalizingly close.

The message to Coliseum Commission officials was plain. Davis had cities courting him. He had an agreement he could wave in their faces. He had options.

If the Raiders had agreed to play in Dodger Stadium or the Rose Bowl in the event the Coliseum wasn’t ready, that wouldn’t have threatened Coliseum officials.

But the Orlando tour and the Oakland agreement sent a very different message.

A threat, though, is only as powerful as the resolve of the person making it. Davis had to be prepared to follow through. Now, that’s not necessary.

The agreement that was signed Thursday benefits both sides.

No politician wants to be responsible for spending $42 million on a stadium, whether it was local money or federal money, only to see its professional team march out the door.

Yes, another team would arrive, but it would soon have its own demands. Nobody is going to want to play in the Coliseum for long in its present condition.

This story isn’t over yet. Thursday’s agreement is only for the 1994 season. If, in a year, the move to improve the Coliseum has bogged done, Davis will start looking again.

And, if he thinks he has to, he and the Raiders will leave.

It will cost money to fix up the Coliseum, money that must somehow be raised, but that will, in turn, generate additional revenue.

A new pro soccer team is supposed to play here next spring. There are always Super Bowls and political conventions and huge concerts to bid for and, perhaps, even another Olympics down the line.

If Los Angeles hopes to attract those kinds of events and keep a pro football team, the Coliseum, sooner rather than later, must be improved.