Sports Arena Getting New Set of Comfortable Seats

For years, San Diegans’ posteriors have endured the sagging, worn-out seats at the Sports Arena.

But help has arrived. Workers this week began replacing the arena’s 13,000 worn vinyl seats with well-cushioned ones.

The $750,000 repair project--which includes reupholstering the 19-year-old seats and renovating the arena’s leaky roof--should be finished by July 1, Sports Arena General Manager Philip R. Quinn said.

The loge level is being redone in “turbo blue” and the upper level in “turbo red.” The repairs will be paid for by San Diego Entertainment Inc., which runs the Sports Arena.

The importance of the occasion wasn’t lost on one San Diego notable, City Councilman Bill Cleator, who told Quinn Tuesday that the old seats have “been a problem people have been talking about quite some time. We all want to give you a big round of applause (for fixing them). In the long run, your business is going to do a lot better as a result.

“The City of San Diego has been talking to the Sports Arena (management) for the last few years, letting them know of our concerns,” Cleator continued.

The complaints peaked in June, when a San Diego County Superior Court jury concluded that the Sports Arena was not reasonably fit for professional basketball and ordered Peter Graham, operator of the arena, to pay the Clippers of the National Basketball Assn. almost $500,000 in damages.

Early in January, after years of fist-shaking and threats, City Council members delivered an ultimatum to Graham, warning him to fix it up or lose his operating franchise.

Graham submitted a renovation plan that included the replacement of lower-level seats, a new roof and the reupholstering of loge and upper-level seats.