Clippers Want Chance to Purchase and Refurbish the Sports Arena

If the Sports Arena is for sale, the Clippers, too, may be interested in buying it, according to one team executive. Earlier this week, USC officials offered to buy the facility from the Coliseum Commission.

“It makes a lot of sense,” said Andy Roeser, the Clippers’ executive vice president in charge of business operations. “If the Coliseum Commission is going to put it out for bid, we’d like to look at it.

“There are a lot of advantages to controlling the facility because you can identify the problems.

“We’d like to see the facility totally refurbished, with new locker rooms, sky boxes, a permanent restaurant and better press facilities.”

The Clippers have played at the Sports Arena since moving here from San Diego in 1984.

USC’s basketball team has been forced to move some of its home games from the Sports Arena because of scheduling conflicts but Roeser said that hasn’t been the Clippers’ problem.

“With us, it’s a matter of bringing improvements to the building,” he said.

“Perhaps the best solution is that USC and the Clippers own it together. But we haven’t talked price.

“We have the resources and management to run it. And we have some vision of what we’d like the facility to look like and would move quickly.”

On a related matter, Roeser said that the Clippers are negotiating with the Coliseum Commission to take over all advertising rights for the Sports Arena.