Lost in Monday's announcement that the Raiders are returning to Oakland is tiny Irwindale, a city 20 miles northeast of Los Angeles that received nothing for the $10 million it paid Al Davis in hopes of becoming the team's new home.
Irwindale was to build its stadium in an 80-acre gravel pit, but the $115 million deal it made with Davis more than two years ago fell through for a variety of reasons. And Davis is not required to return the $10 million cash advance.The city, with a population of slightly more than 1,000 people, encountered environmental roadblocks, financing difficulties and stubborn negotiations with Los Angeles County on a 40-acre parcel owned by the Army Corps of Engineers that the city wanted for a parking lot.
Soon after the Raiders announced they were moving to Irwindale, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission responded by filing a $57 million breach of contract suit against the team.
As part of the suit, the commission asked the court to force the Raiders to repay a $6.7 million loan to the Coliseum and to preclude the team from exercising its three five-year options in the contract to play in the stadium beyond 1992.
Los Angeles City Councilman Ernani Bernardi sued the city of Irwindale, seeking a full environmental report and questioning the proposed use of taxpayer's money.
Irwindale was also hindered by difficulties within its own team of negotiators. Public relations consultant Xavier Hermosillo, one of the three key negotiators, was fired in May 1988 when a newly elected City Council decided it could do without him.
Frederick Lyte, the city's former redevelopment consultant and another of the prime players, was let go because the City Council had accrued more than $3 million in related bills.