Coliseum Repair Cost Soars to $92.7 Million

The cost of the earthquake repair of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum has soared to a projected $92.7 million, a 50% increase over the $60 million figure used by Coliseum officials when the stadium reopened on Sept. 3, and more than 2 1/2 times the original estimate made by Coliseum officials in February.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency already has paid $70.5 million and the state $2 million for the repairs. But Frank Kishton, the chief FEMA representative in Los Angeles, said for the first time this week that the federal and state governments will not pay for all the repairs. He said at least a small part of the costs incurred are ineligible for reimbursement.

The Coliseum’s projected repair costs have reached an amount where, had it been known in advance, authorities might have opted to replace the facility rather than repair it.

When the repair project director, Don C. Webb, made the initial $35-million estimate soon after the Northridge earthquake, he acknowledged that costs could go far higher as further damage was discovered. But he and other Coliseum officials presumably knew the full extent of the damage by the time the Coliseum reopened.

In an interview this week, Webb said that the $60-million figure given in early September was only for work that had already been done, and not work that he knew had yet to be done.

Now, he said, he is ready to acknowledge that the $92.7-million projected cost is not the final figure, but he cannot say how much it might still rise.

FEMA’s Kishton said in an interview that the government would refuse to pay the entire cost of 56 steel-reinforced beams installed to provide seismic strengthening, since they were built larger and stronger than needed for the present Coliseum, with an aim to support eventual luxury boxes on the Coliseum rim.

Kishton also said it is likely that all work on new concession stands will not be reimbursed, assuming that the stadium will end up with more concession space than it had before.

A bigger press box also would not be fully eligible for reimbursement, the federal official said.

A project cost chart released by Webb estimates future costs of replacing the press box at $5.7 million and future concession costs at $2 million. A breakdown of already expended construction costs includes $30.8 million for concourse and reinforcing work, but no specific figure is given for the beams.

The Coliseum is financially strapped, but Coliseum Commission President Yvonne Brathwaite Burke Thursday downplayed the chances that some repair project costs would be passed on to the commission, which is made up of city, county and state representatives.

“They have to do an audit,” she said of the federal government. “If there are betterments (improvements beyond original facilities), there won’t be a government payment, but that’s something that has to be negotiated. We don’t believe there has been a betterment.”

Kishton also said FEMA has always been concerned about the total repair costs because of a rule it has that if repair costs exceed 50% of the estimated cost of replacement of a damaged facility, the applicant for federal disaster repair funds can elect to replace rather than repair the facility.

Because of its status as a national historic landmark, tearing down and replacing the Coliseum, assuming such a plan could have overcome the objections of historic preservationists, could well have been more costly than building an average stadium elsewhere.

For comparison purposes, an almost entirely new, 73,000-seat stadium now being readied for pro football in Jacksonville, Fla., is slated to cost $122 million. On Thursday, Harry Ornest, vice chairman of Hollywood Park, estimated that a new football stadium could be constructed there for the Raiders at $150 million, a matter under consideration.

Kishton--like Webb--re-emphasized this week that when the decision was made to go ahead with repair of the Coliseum, the total costs were not known.

“Unlike a flood, where what you see is what you get, until you get a quake-damaged facility ripped apart, what you have in fact are estimates,” Kishton said. And, he said, even when all the damage was discovered, there still had to be considerable work done to determine what was required to bring the Coliseum up to modern building codes.

“The costs weren’t accurately estimated in advance, because the nature of the damage defied accurate estimates,” Webb said. “And we had no advance plans. If we had waited to do those, we’d only be ready to start the repair now.”

If there had been such a wait, with the costs reaching the amount known now, a replacement would have been theoretically feasible, but in the meantime, the Coliseum’s prime tenants, the Raiders and USC, would have been playing elsewhere this season.

One Coliseum commissioner, Sheldon Sloan, insisted Thursday that the whole idea of replacing rather than repairing the Coliseum was “nonsense.”

“They would never have done that,” Sloan said. “With the preservationists, we wouldn’t have had a standing stadium there for about five years.”

As for changing cost estimates, Sloan said, “We weren’t hiding things. We told everybody at the outset, ‘We know it’s going to be more.’ ”

But one question is how much more, and another is when Coliseum officials knew it was going to be as high as it has turned out to be.

Last June, for example, Webb said he had assured FEMA representatives that the cost would not reach $80 million after they had expressed concern.

Kishton indicated this week that one reason federal representatives had asked about that amount was that $80 million was close to the 50% amount that would trigger the replacement option.

Burke said, however, that replacement was always a moot question to her because repairs had begun and the facility was a historic monument.

The cost breakdown released by Webb this week shows that total repair bills paid up to now have reached $72.5 million. This includes $66.9 million for construction, $2.6 million for architects and engineers, $1 million for project management and $0.8 million for inspections.

Of the construction costs, $30.8 million has thus far been spent on the concourse, $7.4 million for utilities, $7.4 million on the peristyle, $4.7 million on landscaping and escalators, $4.6 million on insurance, bonds, taxes and such matters, $4 million on seating, $1.3 million on press box work already done, $2.7 million on the facility’s tunnels and $2 million on concession equipment. And $2.1 million went to the general contractor, Tutor Saliba, for overhead and profit.

In addition, Webb said $13 million in other expenditures had been incurred, but are pending review for payment. These include $5.2 million in general construction, $6.4 million for a new video board and $0.8 million for work by the city’s Department of Water and Power, as well as smaller items.

Estimated future costs on the press box, concessions and other construction are put at $7.8 million, Webb said.