Antonovich Takes Helm of Coliseum on Optimistic Note

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich was elected president of the Coliseum Commission on Wednesday, replacing developer Alexander Haagen and expressing optimism that the Coliseum will have “a very positive year” and develop close relations with its tenants, including the Los Angeles Raiders.

The Raiders have vowed to leave the stadium for Irwindale, but the commissioners still hope that deal will fall through and the Raiders will decide to stay, despite a $57-million lawsuit the commission has filed against the team.

Antonovich said that while no contract has yet been drawn with MCA Inc.-Spectacor, the business partnership that wants to be private manager of the Coliseum and Sports Arena, he believes one is close and said he will call a special meeting to ratify it when it is ready.

Public discussion of the contract details was suspended while the negotiations continue, but the Los Angeles City Council voted 13 to 1 Wednesday to give the Coliseum Commission authority to retain a private manager. The council acted after City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie said he had reviewed the proposed agreement and found that it “looks good.”

Change in Pact

The board of the Museum of Science and Industry, acting for the state, also voted Wednesday to approve a change in the joint powers agreement under which the Coliseum complex is governed, thus giving the commission authority to act. Required Los Angeles County permission had come earlier.

Although Antonovich was optimistic about the future, his commission presidency was only minutes old before the nine-member commission fell into the kind of squabbling that has marked its deliberations so often in the past.

The trouble started when Los Angeles City Councilman Gilbert Lindsay forgot whom he was supposed to nominate for commission vice president. He nominated Fred Riedman, and Riedman was duly elected. A few minutes later, the man whom he was supposed to nominate, Richard Riordan, showed up and was openly flabbergasted by the mistake.

Lindsay apologized and the matter was quickly reconsidered and Riordan was elected. But another member, Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum, complained, “Lindsay was out to lunch again, that’s what it boils down to.”

Schabarum also clashed with Lindsay over what he charged was the councilman’s failure to keep a commitment to his fellow commissioners to keep land across Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. from the Coliseum complex open for future development of more parking for the stadiums.

Lindsay said he had decided that the Community Redevelopment Agency could go ahead and build low-rent housing on the land and that the parking could go elsewhere, east of the complex between Figueroa Street and the Harbor Freeway.

Change of Mind

Haagen had earlier announced plans to leave the commission but said Wednesday that he will stay until he has a chance to vote on a private management contract. He said he thought the site that Lindsay wanted for housing was entirely unsuitable for it.

An already beleaguered Antonovich ended the exchange by saying he hoped “we can resolve it and everyone will be happy.”

In another development Wednesday in the complicated Coliseum/Raiders/Irwindale matter, the state auditor general’s office filed a petition for a change of venue in the court case in which Irwindale is challenging its right to audit the city’s books to determine whether voter-imposed spending limits were violated when Irwindale advanced $10 million to the Raiders last August. It said the case should be moved to another county.

The Superior Court judge in Pomona who issued a temporary restraining order against the audit, Thomas Nuss, will consider the change of venue request today.