L.A. Should Try Harder for Raiders

James Flanigan’s foray into professional sports (“Football Owners Cry ‘Farewell’ but Mean ‘Welfare,’ ” May 29) was most unfortunate. He sounds like an unreconstructed socialist when he bemoans the lack of social duty by the owners of professional football teams.

The facts are: Al Davis was promised his box seats as a condition for moving to Los Angeles, a promise the Coliseum Commission quickly forgot about. The football owners have invested their lives and an enormous amount of capital in building up a successful franchise--now everyone wants a piece of their action as their “due.”

What has Los Angeles invested? When you can’t ever fill the Coliseum for a championship team, you don’t deserve a franchise. There are plenty of towns and cities all over the country that would give their eyeteeth for a championship team. All Los Angeles can do is complain about them.

TOM MAHON

Van Nuys