Coliseum needs to work fast

The Olympic cauldron was silhouetted against an unbroken blue sky over the Coliseum on Wednesday afternoon, an eloquent reminder of the great events that have taken place there.

A glance at the stands showed crumbling steps, pitted seats and a dubious future whose course was being shaped in a tiny office at the peristyle end of the stadium.

The Coliseum Commission, like the facility it oversees, is a prisoner of its past. Divided for decades by loyalties to the state, county and city as well as self-interest, the commission has driven more teams out of Los Angeles than most cities have had teams.

The commission thought UCLA was bluffing in 1982 when it said it would move its football team to the Rose Bowl.

The Bruins have enjoyed life in Pasadena ever since.

It may have thought USC officials were grandstanding when they said they’d move their football team to Pasadena unless they get a favorable lease and near-total control of the Coliseum, but the commission can’t afford to call that bluff and lose.

To save the Coliseum the commission has seemed intent on killing it, allowing bureaucracy and posturing to triumph over practicality. In his book “Made in America,” Peter Ueberroth, president of the organizing committee of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, spoke of disagreements with the commission that lingered almost until the opening ceremony.

“In fairness to the commission, part of the reason it’s such a mess is its ridiculous management structure,” he wrote. “It is governed by three parents -- the state, county and city -- but it’s treated like an orphan.”

It would be economically and emotionally painful for the area if USC joined the exodus that carried away the Raiders and Rams. The prospect stirred strong emotions when USC blamed the commission for postponing desperately needed renovations until an NFL team moved in, a dream that will never come true.

Some of the response has been ugly, descending to racially based venom and threats directed toward the commissioners.

Bernard Parks, the commission’s president and one of three African Americans on the panel, said he got a voice mail attributing the dispute to “ ‘What occurs when you elect people from your continent,’ though what continent he referred to, I’m not sure,” Parks said.

When he returned the call, Parks said, “he did not back off” and added, “ ‘You guys use Ebonics,’ and a variety of other things.”

William Chadwick, another commissioner, said last week he had received threats aimed at his children, also unspeakably heinous.

Todd Dickey, USC’s senior vice president and general counsel, said the university condemned those expressions. Thankfully, speakers during the public portion of Wednesday’s meeting were polite and pithy, limited to 60 seconds by a clock and Parks’ right index finger circling in a wrap-it-up motion.

Willis Edwards of Los Angeles, a member of the national board of the NAACP, was drawn by a desire to defuse racial tensions and help keep the Trojans in South L.A.

“It would be unconscionable for this community not to have USC play here, because of the rich history that it has,” he said.

Student Holden Slusher, a junior who skipped a business communications class to attend the meeting, said he can’t picture USC playing anywhere but the Coliseum.

“It’s part of the university. Even though it’s not our stadium. I really feel like it’s USC Stadium,” he said.

“I see the commission’s point in not wanting to cede control, but what they’ve done with that control is drive teams away from the stadium for years and years and years, and we’re the last one.”

There were signs that sanity might prevail, that, as Commissioner Fabian Wesson said, “We want to get a deal with USC and we will get it done.”

Chadwick didn’t miss a beat: “Could everyone sing ‘Kumbaya?’ ” he said.

No one was ready to hold hands and warble harmonies, even though Parks later said in a statement that the commission will mix and match elements from previous proposals and formulate a new response.

That’s encouraging. Now, it’s up to USC to compromise. A good start would be to relax its demand for stranglehold control of the Coliseum.

This is a time for conciliation, not slinging blame and wasting time. The Coliseum isn’t getting any younger or sturdier.

Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.