Raiders Cut Last Ties to L.A. Region

The Oakland--formerly Los Angeles--Raiders and the El Segundo Unified School District have struck a deal in which the Raiders will pay $346,000 to quit their lease early and leave the junior high school that they used as their base camp in Southern California.

In a deal made public late Tuesday, the Raiders--who, though back in Oakland, were still paying monthly rent for the junior high--will vacate the property Aug. 1.

In exchange for the team’s departure and $346,000, the district agreed to let the Raiders out of the lease, which ran through August 1998.

The arrangement avoids the looming prospect of lawsuits and finally ends the Raiders’ tenure in Los Angeles--and, in particular, in El Segundo.

In recent months, the relationship between the team and residents of the small South Bay town had soured amid hurt feelings over the Raiders’ abrupt return to Oakland and complaints that the school site was becoming a neighborhood blight.

“I want to point out that the school district is not upset, has not been upset, with the Oakland Raiders,” said Supt. Bill Manahan, who disclosed at a school board meeting Tuesday night that the deal was done. “This [arrangement] is of benefit to both of us.”

A few months back, during negotiations, Manahan had urged Raiders owner Al Davis to “do the right thing, baby,” a play on Davis’ familiar battle cry, “Just win, baby!” On Tuesday, Manahan said of Davis: “He did the right thing.”

On Tuesday, Davis signed the papers that closed the deal; the school board unanimously approved it in closed session June 24.

“We really did enjoy our relationship with the school district and the city,” Raiders chief executive Amy Trask said Tuesday.

The Raiders leased the 8.8-acre site in 1982, when the team moved south from Oakland, their original home. Sporting half a dozen buildings and room for both a grass and an AstroTurf field, the site had been vacant since 1979, when it was closed because of a sharp decline in enrollment.

The Raiders signed a 10-year lease with the option to renew for two three-year extensions. The rent, originally $10,000 a month, had risen to $15,071 monthly.

In 1995, the Raiders bolted to Oakland--sort of. They played games there but continued to practice in El Segundo.

Before the 1996 season, the practices and the administrative staff moved north, leaving only a few staffers who handle team merchandise--as well as a few Raiders decals on the buildings.

Enrollment in the El Segundo schools, meanwhile, which had declined to 1,803 in 1984, is above 2,600 and climbing, Manahan said.

The issue confronting the team and school officials was whether the Raiders were obligated to return the Center Street site to the condition that it was in when the team took it over in 1982, or to bring it up to 1997 standards for a school--or to pay anything at all.

“There was genuine ambiguity in the lease,” Manahan said.

The cost to bring it up to 1997 standards was estimated at $3.5 million; to its 1982 condition, $1.2 million.