Clippers Overcharging Fans, Violating Lease

Clipper fans who have bought season parking tickets have been charged more than the going price for Sports Arena events, in violation of the National Basketball Assn. club’s lease agreement with the state.

For other events at the Sports Arena, the parking rate at state-owned lots is $2. The Clippers have offered reserved parking passes for the 1,200 spaces in Lot 6, located directly in front of the Sports Arena, at $200 for 42 home games. That comes out to $4.76 a game. For the 42-game schedule, assuming that each of the 1,200 spaces in the lot are sold out each night, the team would realize $139,104 more than the contracted amount.

A report by the state auditor general’s office, released in late January, said that the Clippers had charged as much as $140,000 more in parking than last season’s agreement allowed for, and that the California Museum of Science and Industry, which runs state-owned lots in the Exposition Park area, allowed the Clippers to do so.

A sign identifying the state’s $2 parking rate on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is taken down before each Clipper home game. Down the street, at a state-owned lot not leased by the Clippers, fans can park for $2.

The Clippers reportedly are claiming that it takes more than the $2 a space it costs to operate the lot for other Sports Arena events, such as rock concerts, wrestling shows and conventions. Some of the additional money apparently is used by the Clippers to hire security guards who check passes, direct traffic and protect cars at their home games.

Donald M. Muchmore, executive director of the museum, said Tuesday that the museum has acted on behalf of the state and hired an outside accountant familiar with arena parking and stadium concessions to review the Clippers’ parking charges and determine its validity.

“It may be that it takes more to run the lot at Clipper games than other events,” Muchmore said. “They use more security guards than we do for our night events, but that’s their determination that they need it. That’s what the accountant is working on, and she will report to a special committee we have set up to look at this.”

It also could turn out that the Clippers, whose significant financial losses recently were made public in a story in The Times, may suffer even greater losses if they are required to pay the state their parking profits. According to last season’s contract, the club wasn’t supposed to make any profit. Clipper officials, namely general counsel Arn Tellem, signed the contract agreeing to this. A copy of the contract was obtained Tuesday from Museum sources.

According to the auditor’s report, Muchmore told the Clippers Nov. 13 that the museum’s board of directors would not enter into a new parking agreement until the club paid the museum its profits from the inflated parking prices.

The Clippers have not done so to date and continue to collect the $4.76 per parking spot per game. Each time they sell out the lot, they generate $5,712, or $3,312 more than the amount contractually agreed to.

The museum has not signed the contract for the 1985-86 season, but Muchmore said that the Clippers have and therefore are allowed to use the lot.

“We at the museum have an agreement (with the Clippers), but we have not signed it until we settle last season’s agreement,” Muchmore said. “They can go ahead and use it. Because they’ve signed it, we are protected.”

There was no indication Tuesday from the Clippers, who would not talk to a Times reporter, as to why the club did not ascertain at the time of the original contract--Nov. 1, 1984--that it would take more than $2 a space to operate the lot.

“The Clippers have cooperated 100% with our investigation,” Muchmore said. “They have been great. They have opened their (financial) books to the accountant. I’m sure this will be settled soon.”

The Clippers’ practice of overcharging for parking during the 1984-85 season was first made public in the report. The report attributed the $4.76 figure the Clippers are charging to Clipper General Manager Carl Scheer, who did not tell the auditor general’s office the exact number of season parking permits the club had sold.

Originally, the museum allowed the Clippers to overcharge, thus denying the state’s general fund a possible $140,000. A deputy director of the museum said in the report that he did not know what prices the Clippers charged.

Additionally, the Clippers did not pay all the money they owed the museum under the agreement until Sept. 13, 1985--five months after the 1984-85 season had ended.

The original contract incorrectly stated that the Clippers would only have to pay $1 per parking space for each home game. Muchmore said the contract was later corrected and revised to $2 a space.

But last Dec. 18, when the Clippers made their first payment to the museum for parking this season, they paid only for $1 a space.