Few Oppose Raiders Stadium; Backers Hope to Speed Project

Heartened that the initial environmental hearing on the proposed Raiders stadium in Irwindale drew only perfunctory opposition, promoters of the project say they hope to proceed with it by summer.

Testimony at a hearing held Monday night on preparation of an environmental impact report for the stadium project lasted only 42 minutes. Some environmentalists said they feared the project would misuse recreational land in the Santa Fe Dam basin of the San Gabriel River. A few residents voiced misgivings about the location in the middle of Irwindale of some alternative parking sites.

But even the critics appeared in the main reconciled to seeing the stadium project go ahead.

James Ragan, who said he had conducted 150 environmental impact hearings prior to this one, remarked afterward that in comparison with the others, “I would say this was tame.”

June Primary

Meanwhile, Irwindale city spokesman Xavier Hermosillo said that if the environmental impact report is approved as expected within the next couple of months and a temporary Superior Court injunction against going ahead with the project is lifted, the city will ask voters to approve some of the bonds needed to finance the stadium at the June primary.

John Herrera, a senior Los Angeles Raiders executive who attended the hearing, said, “A lot of people in a lot of areas are working diligently on the project, and it’s beginning to show.”

At the outset of the hearing, Dallas architect Warren Morey, designer of Texas Stadium, where the Dallas Cowboys play, unveiled a schematic drawing his firm had prepared for the Raiders stadium. But Morey, in his comments, took some of the impact away by saying that he had not gone beyond the drawing stage into detailed plans and that many things could be changed when those plans are prepared.

The listed capacity of the stadium as drawn was 70,000. But Morey and Herrera said this is a maximum, and that basic planned capacity is 62,000. Provision also may be made for adding 8,000 temporary seats.

Another public hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight at the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration, and Irwindale has promised a third hearing once the draft of the report is finished.

In another development, it was disclosed Tuesday that U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Harry Pregerson, who has long presided over the damage suit the Raiders filed against the National Football League for its efforts to prevent the team from moving from Oakland to Los Angeles, has given notice to attorneys for both sides that he is removing himself from the case.

This means that a new judge will have to be assigned to conduct a jury trial, as ordered by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, to adjust, possibly downward, the original $34 million in damages that the National Football League was ordered to pay the Raiders. With interest, that award now amounts to close to $50 million.

Richard W. Johnson, deputy clerk to Pregerson, said the judge believed he had too tight a schedule to handle the matter, which had been scheduled to go to trial in April. He said a new judge might be able to schedule the trial for April, but it is also possible there could be a delay of several months.

The league’s attorney, Frank Rothman, said Tuesday that Raiders owner Al Davis may have worked himself into a legal hole by testifying during the damage phase of the lengthy case that he considered the Raiders to be worth as much as $25 million more in Los Angeles than they were in Oakland.

Rothman said that since the 9th Circuit ordered that the difference in values be given credit in the adjustment trial, this could result in a major downward revision in the amount of damages going to the Raiders.

In fact, Rothman said, “perhaps the Raiders will end up owing the league money.”

“Ridiculous,” responded Raiders attorney Joseph Alioto, the former mayor of San Francisco.

He said the 9th Circuit had made it clear that the damages awarded should be offset by the difference, if any, in value between an expansion franchise in Los Angeles and one in San Francisco.

“Expansion franchises sold at the same time have always sold at identical prices,” Alioto said, concluding that Rothman’s arguments are “just baloney.”

The 9th Circuit has also held that “the Raiders damages are fully supported by the evidence,” Alioto said, expressing confidence that any adjustment will not be substantial.