Davis Can’t Wait to Get Out of Coliseum

Raider owner Al Davis, negotiating to build a new stadium on property owned by Hollywood Park in Inglewood, cast serious doubt Thursday on the likelihood of his team remaining in the Coliseum until a new facility becomes a reality.

“We’ve really been unfair to this team,” Davis said. “They really don’t have a stadium. We go to Kansas City and San Diego and see those people doing those barbecues. I am amazed why the kids (his players) want to play here. . . .

“The only thing we’ve got going for us is (what happens) when a visiting team comes in. One of the owners said to me, ‘I’m scared to get off the damn bus.’ ”

Asked where he’d like to play his games, Davis said, “A state-of-the-art stadium that affords parking, where people can come and feel safe. I’m concerned with the environment for the team. Howie (Long) would always make a big issue out of it, how he wouldn’t bring his wife and his kids to the game. And other guys say, ‘I’m not bringing my wife.’

“We can’t afford to give up all this revenue we’ve been giving up by playing in the Coliseum. We have close to $30 million a year less than the Dallas Cowboys in revenue. It’s impossible to operate in this theater with these other teams. We are probably one of the few teams in professional sports that has no debt. We’d have to start taking (on) debt to compete, but I don’t want to do that. I’ve never lived that way.”

Davis says the NFL’s proposal to give Los Angeles five Super Bowls in 10 years if a new stadium is built is a key element in that project.

“They talk,” he said. “Let’s see what they do. They brought it up.”

Davis envisions an 82,000-seat stadium where the NFL would get the revenue from 65,000 of those seats and the stadium itself would reap the benefits from the remaining 17,000 for each of the five Super Bowls. At a premium seat licensing price of $3,000 per seat, that would bring in $51 million toward the stadium per Super Bowl.