Davis Keeps Everyone Hanging on Stadium : Raiders: He is believed to be asking NFL for financial guarantees, while still contemplating a return to Oakland.

Negotiations to construct a new football stadium at Hollywood Park stalled in the final stages Monday after a lengthy conversation between Raider boss Al Davis and NFL officials produced more rancor than resolution.

Davis, whose Raiders must stay in Los Angeles under terms of the proposed stadium deal, apparently still wonders whether he would be more successful in Oakland.

“Al just will not make any commitment,” said one exasperated source.

In last-minute bargaining, Davis is believed to be asking the league for financial guarantees that would compensate him if new stadium construction does not proceed as scheduled.

He is nervous about turning down a rare, government-backed offer from Oakland, only to be forced to remain in the aging Coliseum past 1997 if the stadium is not completed in time.

He is also increasingly worried about the marketplace and is distrustful of the potential attendance estimates calculated by Hollywood Park officials.

Davis, whose Raiders have recently finished near the bottom of the league in attendance, wonders how many more fans he can attract simply by moving down the street.

NFL and Hollywood Park officials still hope to have an agreement by the end of the week--”These next three days are critical,” one official said--but Davis’ timetable may have changed.

“It’s all messed up,” said one source.

The atmosphere was far different from late last week, when league officials were giddy after a meeting with R.D. Hubbard, Hollywood Park chief executive officer.

Hubbard seemed agreeable to the lease terms for a second team to join the Raiders in the new stadium in 1998. Both sides agreed that the guarantee of two Super Bowls and 20,000 tickets for each Super Bowl made sense.

The deal merely needed Davis’ stamp of approval, and he told friends he would make his decision by Monday night.

“I feel as good about the situation in Los Angeles as I have at any time in the last two weeks,” Jerry Richardson, Carolina Panthers owner and negotiating committee member, told reporters.

But all of that may have changed after a Monday conversation between Davis and league officials that was “not very satisfactory,” according to a source.

George Vukasin, president of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, said he had hoped to hear from Davis Monday night.

But if it means acquiring the Raiders for this season, Vukasin said he could wait.

Only not for very long.

“For Al to move out of the L.A. market is a major thing, and he wants to make sure it’s the right move,” Vukasin said. “His whole life is his team. Getting to the Super Bowl is his primary goal.”

However, Vukasin said: “We need to move. . . . We would not only be selling tickets, but working with an architect. We need an answer in the next couple of weeks, and I think we’ll get it.”

Vukasin has promised Davis $85 million in government-assured money to be used for stadium renovation. This includes the addition of 118 luxury boxes in time for the 1996 season, bringing the stadium total to 175 boxes.

Revenue from luxury boxes, which could be more than $17 million in Oakland, is one of the few financial perks that NFL owners do not have to share with fellow owners. The L.A. Coliseum does not have any luxury boxes.

Although it took the Rams about two years to move from Anaheim to St. Louis, the league would be willing to let Davis leave for Oakland immediately and without a fight. The NFL probably wouldn’t even charge a relocation fee.

Some owners actually prefer that Davis leave, so the NFL could rebuild the Los Angeles market from scratch, with an owner or two grateful for the chance to work in the nation’s second-largest TV market.

If Davis departs, the league would hope to relocate an existing team into the area before the 1996 season, although it seems unlikely officials could move that quickly. The league might attempt to move that team into the Rose Bowl.

The NFL would then try to add an expansion team by 1998 upon the completion of a stadium built with league assistance.