Sacramento Dismantling Raider Offer : Football: The City Council has given Raiders managing general partner Al Davis until midnight tonight to agree to move his team.
SACRAMENTO — The Sacramento City Council began dismantling its $50-million offer to bring the Raiders to California’s capital late Tuesday.
The City Council voted to yank its bid off the table if Raiders managing general partner Al Davis has not agreed by midnight tonight to move his team to Sacramento. Davis called Mayor Anne Rudin earlier this week to say he probably would not make up his mind by the city’s deadline.
“We gave him ample opportunity. If he didn’t avail himself of it, we’re going to do other things with this money. We’re not holding it out for him,†Rudin said after the council meeting.
The city intends to spend the money it raised for the Raiders on municipal building projects during its annual budget hearings in May and June. Although the money will sit in a bank until then, Rudin said it cannot be used to pay the Raiders to move to Sacramento unless the City Council changes its mind.
“He (Davis) is out of luck. It’s too late for public money,†she said.
During a 2 1/2-hour discussion of the deal late Tuesday, the council voted to postpone collecting a new 5% tax on tickets to entertainment events until July, 1991, and to consider repealing a 1.5% increase in the city’s hotel tax in 30 days.
Both taxes were passed by the City Council last September to help pay for $40-million in bonds sold to finance the Raiders’ fee. The city is under pressure from the hotel industry and the entertainment industry to repeal the taxes.
The council also voted to collect nearly $304,000 from the Sacramento Sports Assn., an investment group headed by developer Gregg Lukenbill that was organized to bring professional football and/or baseball to the capital. The money will be used to recoup city expenses on the bond issue.
Davis has been listening to offers from Sacramento and Oakland because he is dissatisfied with the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission’s failure to improve the stadium. He has also discussed keeping the club in Los Angeles if the Coliseum is renovated.
If the Raiders move, it will be their third home since 1982, when the team moved from Oakland to Los Angeles.
Without the city-backed relocation money, Lukenbill’s chances of landing the Raiders will fade compared with proposals by Oakland and Los Angeles.
Lukenbill, owner of the NBA Sacramento Kings, did not attend the council meeting, but he said earlier this week that he was pessimistic about Sacramento’s chances with Davis.
“I think he’s just basically blowing us off,†Lukenbill said. “It’s hard for me to believe that, but that’s what it seems to me.â€
Rudin said the efforts to land the NFL franchise were like “chasing an illusion†and predicted that the city would not offer to spend public money to land a professional football or baseball team without having voters approve the offer.
“We’re not going to put up public money to get another sports team here. We’re going to ask the community. If it is a great deal, the community and the private sector should put up the money,†she said.
“I’m not willing to go though all this again,†she said. “To spend our time--our staff time, our own time and energy, and our money--chasing an illusion just doesn’t make sense.â€
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