Few Tears Here : Football: Many Coliseum neighbors are not sorry to see Raiders--and rowdy fans--go. Some firms may suffer, though.

The team formerly called the Los Angeles Raiders was well-known for its disdain of the Coliseum and the surrounding Exposition Park neighborhood. This week, in the wake of the team’s announcement that it is returning to Oakland, the feeling was mutual among many of those who live and work near the stadium.

“I’ll lose some business, but I won’t have to go to war on Sundays anymore,” said Ted Donaldson, who owns a gas station and convenience store across the street from Exposition Park.

Raider game days for Donaldson meant extra gas and snack sales, but also fights, drunks and having an employee on duty all day just to clean the bathroom.

Donaldson, who has been at the corner of Figueroa Street and Exposition Boulevard since 1971, found the rituals of Raider fans disturbingly unique.

“Five of them once beat up a guy in front of the station, then they all piled into a Volkswagen and went to the game with him,” he said. “That certainly wasn’t the atmosphere at a Rams game or a USC game.”

One Los Angeles police officer who has worked in the Coliseum said 75 to 100 citations for open alcoholic beverage containers near the stadium were written on a typical Raider Sunday, compared with 10 to 15 at a USC game. Fifty to 75 fans were ejected from a typical Raider game, compared with two or three from a USC game.

“The difference is like night and day,” he said.

Five blocks away, outside Patricia Watkins’ house, there was little interest this week in the reasons for Raider rowdiness. Watkins and her neighbors were more concerned with the results.

“They would sit on their cars drinking. Then they would throw their beer cans and food and trash in our yards,” Watkins said of the fans who parked in her neighborhood.

On Raider Sundays, Watkins said, members of her Exposition Park Neighborhood Watch spent their days keeping an eye on drunk Raider revelers. Those who pass through for USC games “are totally different. They’re like angels,” she said.

Many people are sure to be hurt by the Raiders’ departure. The three restaurants across from the Coliseum depend heavily on football business, according to Rudy Polin, chief executive officer of Julie’s Trojan Barrel on Figueroa. Polin said he doubts that all three will survive without the business from Raider fans.

At the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Figueroa, general manager Albert Salah said he expects to lose about $200,000 a year by not having Raider business.

Still, the Raiders’ departure will have little economic effect compared to a plant closing.

“Its overall impact won’t add up to much,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles, noting that with a major research university, museums and the Coliseum and Sports Arena, the neighborhood’s future does not depend on pro football.

The Raiders played only eight to 10 home games a year, and new professional hockey and soccer teams will play in the Coliseum and Sports Arena next year. Coliseum officials are trying to book other events for the Sundays left vacant by the Raiders’ flight.

Coliseum general manager Patrick Lynch said that while on-call event staff will no longer have work from the Raider games, no permanent employees will lose their jobs.

Lynch is optimistic that the soccer and hockey games will help to make up for Raider revenue. There are 20 Major League Soccer games scheduled for next year, and there may be as many as five highly popular international soccer games played in the Coliseum, Lynch said. He noted that a Mexico-Colombia soccer game drew 56,000 fans to the stadium on a cold Wednesday night this March.

Such alternate events might be more popular with the neighbors.

Donaldson said that coping with the crowd from a rally that brought 75,000 Christian men to the Coliseum over two days in May was a piece of cake compared to dealing with Raider fans.

“I almost didn’t have to clean the bathroom after that one,” he said.