COMMENTARY : Cash, Not Coliseum, May Have Motivated Davis

It is tempting to blame the Coliseum Commission, which has seen so many teams leave the Coliseum and the Sports Arena, for the departure of Al Davis and the Raiders.

And it would be nice to believe that Davis is dedicated to the exclusion of everything else to the pristine vision of a winning football team, and that that is what has sent him back to Oakland.

But in this instance, the commission may not be wholly to blame for what has happened, and it is quite possible that it was the $31.9-million “loan” he got from Oakland--the latest of several cash infusions of recent years--that primarily influenced Davis to move. That, and not wanting to put any Raider money into the proposed new stadium at Hollywood Park.

Davis has always liked getting money, not shelling it out.

There was a $6.7-million “loan” given to the Raiders to move to Los Angeles, which was later termed a gift by the principal Los Angeles negotiator and later officially forgiven.

There was $10 million forfeited by Irwindale after it failed to build the stadium promised the team in 1987.

And there was $10 million forfeited by the Spectacor private partnership after it failed to go forward with its 1990 contract with the Raiders to modernize the Coliseum.

Based on the Coliseum’s experience with its loan, there is certainly reason to doubt that the $31.9-million loan from Oakland will ever be repaid. The Coliseum Commission, in fact, frequently found it difficult to get Davis to pay his rent, and it bowed to his demand last year that his team play rent free.

Here is real heresy: Money may be at least as important to Al Davis as a winning football team.

As for the Coliseum Commission, it has frequently been a hapless group, no denying that.

It is composed of representatives from the city, the county and the state, without taxing authority of its own, and has frequently proved disunited and inept.

The commission’s attempt several years ago to hire private managers to provide a more efficient operation and attract more business hasn’t worked out as well as it hoped.

But, in fairness, the commission has scant resources. The political atmosphere in Los Angeles has seldom encouraged making big cash investments in facilities for sports franchises. Even giving land, Chavez Ravine, to the Los Angeles Dodgers was approved by the thinnest of margins.

If the departure of all these teams has engendered periodic public uproar, they were nothing compared to the uproar that would have ensued if the commission had asked for tax revenue to build a better stadium for the Raiders.

Sure, the commission successfully solicited $100 million to repair the stadium after last year’s earthquake. But to many people, federal disaster money doesn’t seem like real money, compared to putting in property taxes or state income taxes.

Two years ago, the commission took most of the money it received as its share of the lawsuit damages from the NFL for impeding the Raider move from Oakland and lowered the field and put in new close-in seats, changes the Raiders had long wanted. Davis scarcely bothered to say thank you.

As for the luxury boxes, the $6.7 million the commission originally lent Davis was supposed to be used by him to build the boxes.

In one of many squabbles with the commission, in 1987, Davis refused to build the boxes unless the commission first agreed to invest millions in a reconfiguration of the stadium.

Davis claimed that renovation promises had been broken but ignored that the 1984 contract between the Raiders and the commission made no reference to any renovations and explicitly stated there were no oral agreements on the side.

It is likely that, from time to time, a determined commission could have scraped together the money to make the Coliseum a better place for Davis. And it would have happened even this year had Davis agreed to sign a long-term contract that would have brought a revenue stream enabling the commission to get a loan from the banks.

The commission might well have moved forward had Davis proved more cooperative, friendlier, had demonstrated even some loyalty to Los Angeles.

Yet, since 1987, Davis has been saying he might move elsewhere. There was a stream of reports that he was negotiating in other cities, and an unending series of complaints from him about the Coliseum and its neighborhood.

Los Angeles residents, it is often said, will only tolerate a winner, and the Raiders here were not always that. But it certainly did not help attendance that there was incessant talk about the team leaving.

A number of commissioners over the years were ready to negotiate with Davis, only to end up turned off by him. That number includes Mayor Richard Riordan, who as a Coliseum negotiator in 1989-90, finally lost patience with Davis.

Even the latest Coliseum negotiator, the low-key, patient and understanding Don C. Webb, finally lost some of his patience.

Could the commission, seizing its courage, have talked more plainly to citizens about the consequences of not radically improving the Coliseum?

Of course. But Davis didn’t make it easy for any commissioner to go out on a limb for his team.

Kenneth Reich has been covering the Coliseum Commission for 13 years for The Times.