In One-Man Play, Holden Pursues Crusade to Bring Back the Raiders

City Councilman Nate Holden continued his one-man crusade Wednesday to convince uninterested Angelenos that--no matter what they may think they think--they really do want a professional football team.

More important, according to the councilman, the club they don’t realize they want is the one they used to have--the Raiders.

It is possible that only the MTA is disliked by more residents than the former Coliseum tenants. But the undeterred Holden announced at a news conference that he will hire an attorney to help him decide whether to intervene in the lawsuit Raiders owner Al Davis has filed against the National Football League. Davis alleges that he was forced to leave the city and, therefore, retains the right to market football in Los Angeles.

Holden said he will not ask his City Council colleagues to join him because they do not understand the issues and are jealous of his efforts.

“I’m going it alone,” Holden said. “People are hungry for a team.”

But several council members said Wednesday that they are opposed not only to getting involved in the lawsuit, but also to dealing with Davis and the Raiders, who left the city to return to Oakland four years ago.

“There can’t be fun and games or sport at taxpayers’ expense,” said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who is attempting to persuade the NFL to put another franchise in the Coliseum. “This is ridiculous.”

But Holden, who last week held a nearly identical news conference at the Coliseum, repeated that he believes Davis is close to settling his lawsuit, and that the Raiders will be given territorial rights to the Los Angeles market.

Raiders officials, meanwhile, have denied that they are close to settling the lawsuit or even that they are remotely interested in returning to Los Angeles.

“I think that Nate sees a professional football franchise as a great asset to the community,” said Al LoCasale, the Raiders’ executive assistant. But he said, “I personally am not aware of any conversations that have gone on” about returning the team to Los Angeles.

Earlier this week, Holden received a strongly worded letter from attorneys representing the city of Oakland warning him that the team has a contract for 13 more seasons in that city.

A recent Los Angeles Times poll found that fewer than 10% of respondents considered themselves strong Raiders fans before the team left the city in 1994 and more than half the respondents--54%--said they were not Raiders fans.

When asked about the poll Wednesday, Holden said: “Some of the information you get could be misleading. I talk to people in the streets. They say, ‘Oh, Mr. Holden, hope you win.’ ”

With that mandate, Holden vowed to press on to bring professional football back to the Coliseum.