NFL Approves Stadium Agreement; Still No Commitment From Davis

The NFL said Thursday it has reaffirmed its support of the Hollywood Park stadium project, which means nothing as long as Raider owner Al Davis continues to stew.

The league’s finance committee has unanimously agreed to recommend approval of the deal, promising to put two Super Bowl games in the facility in the next 10 years in exchange for giving the league an option to place a second team there.

That deal had been completed last week with R.D. Hubbard, Hollywood Park’s chief executive officer.

The league’s 30 owners are expected to follow the finance committee’s recommendation by vote soon, although both parties acknowledge that nothing is final until Davis says it is.

And with slightly more than eight weeks remaining before his first scheduled home exhibition, Davis is still not saying.

After long expressing concern that the stadium could be completed by 1997, Davis now is apparently also worried that a shovel may never hit the ground. Hollywood Park made only about $3 million last year, and NationsBank would require around $13 million a year to service the debt on a $115-million loan.

Davis must be convinced that the money would be generated by such things as the sale of luxury suites and club boxes and the sale of the stadium name.

Not coincidentally, two members of the league’s finance committee that unanimously approved the deal are executives whose teams might be interested in coming here as the second team--Art Modell of the Cleveland Browns and David Behring of the Seattle Seahawks.