Buyer of Sports Arena Lease Will Build New Arena, Possibly Downtown

La Jolla computer baron H. G. (Harry) Cooper, making a commitment to bring to San Diego “the finest sports palace in the world,” announced Wednesday his purchase of the company holding the lease to the San Diego Sports Arena.

Then Cooper delivered the surprising news: He plans to open a new arena by 1992, preferably downtown. He said the $115-million, 22,000-seat arena will be financed and built entirely with private money.

“I’m so thrilled,” said Vin Ciruzzi, president of San Diego Entertainment Inc., who for months had searched for a local buyer to take over control of the Sports Arena, which sits on city-owned land in the Midway District near the junctions of Interstates 8 and 5. “I’m thrilled because this is the man--Harry Cooper--who will bring our dreams to us.”

No Guarantee

Those dreams are twofold: franchises in the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Assn. San Diego has never had the former and surrendered to other cities two of the latter. The NBA’s Clippers, citing poor conditions in the arena as well as other factors, moved to Los Angeles in 1984--the year Ciruzzi took over management of the building. The Rockets moved to Houston in 1970.

There is no guarantee that Cooper or anyone else will be able to bring either franchise to San Diego. The NBA expanded just this season and has no plans to add new teams anytime soon. The main hope for a pro basketball team, Ciruzzi conceded, is in wooing one from another city. The NHL has expressed interest in San Diego as a target city for expansion, but has no timetable.

Cooper said the price he paid for control of the arena will remain confidential, but last week representatives of Ackerley Communications Inc., which owns the Seattle SuperSonics, told The Times that the winning bid would be in the neighborhood of $13 million.

Ciruzzi and arena general manager Phil Quinn, despite maintaining their present jobs (at Cooper’s request) did relinquish minority shares of San Diego Entertainment Inc. as part of the sale. The new firm, headed by Cooper, will be called San Diego Arena Corp., which has as its main asset the lease to the Sports Arena. The lease has 26 years remaining.

Cooper praised Ciruzzi and said he has a five-year commitment from the local businessman to help ease the transition from the 23-year-old, 13,139-seat arena--long the object of controversy and derision--to a lavish new facility.

“I hope he stays with me until he’s ready to retire,” Cooper said.

‘Ross Perot of San Diego’

Cooper, who speaks with a buttery Southern accent and Wednesday wore slicked-back hair with a finely trimmed mustache, was dubbed by one of his associates as “the Ross Perot of San Diego.” He made his money in the computer industry, starting in the local offices of General Dynamics in 1952. He’s been a resident of San Diego ever since.

In 1965, he founded General Computing, which associates said now reports annual sales of more than $845 million. In 1971, Cooper founded the Career Guidance Foundation, which he described as an effort “to provide career and occupational guidance in the nation’s educational system.” Others say it’s mainly a microfilm publisher of college catalogues.

Cooper said construction of the new arena could begin as early as a year from now with an opening to follow in July, 1992, in time for the 1992-93 seasons in professional hockey and basketball. He said the cost would be about $115 million.

He said he has not been in touch with officials in either the NBA or NHL about an expansion team or about luring an existing franchise to the new building. But he added that, without the new building, the city’s chances of winning either franchise are remote.

“It’s like the chicken and the egg,” he said. “Without the chicken of the new arena, you’ll never get the egg. We had studied this for about a year, but Graymont Limited (the Canadian firm from which he bought San Diego Entertainment Inc.) had a no-compete clause. There was no way of building a new arena with them still in the picture. When they decided to sell, suddenly, we had an opening. We took it.”

Suggested 2 Years Ago

City Councilman Ron Roberts, whose district includes the Sports Arena, had suggested two years ago that a new arena be built downtown. Roberts and Cooper met Tuesday with Ciruzzi, Deputy City Manager Maureen Stapleton and Assistant City Manager Jack McGrory.

No decision has been made on the future of the existing arena, but Roberts and others favor tearing it down and converting the property to either commercial or residential use. Roberts said the property is valued at $35 million, but the city gets only $250,000 a year in lease revenue.

Cooper said he owns land in Sorrento Hills near Interstates 5 and 805 “and that might make a terrific site, but if the city wants it downtown--and they seem to--then it will be downtown.” He said he expects to know within 90 days where and when construction can begin.

“We favor it downtown because we want downtown to be a 24-hour place,” Roberts said. “It’s worked well in other cities. We know it can work here. It could be the final phase in downtown redevelopment.”

Cooper said he has hired the architectural firm of Gino Rossetti, who designed the newly opened 22,000-seat Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich., where the NBA’s Detroit Pistons play. Gino Rossetti said Wednesday that he favors building the arena downtown for aesthetic reasons.

“A downtown arena could totally rejuvenate a rough area,” Rossetti said. “I’ve seen it happen in Cleveland and other cities. It’s a can’t-miss. It would be a wonderful asset for the city of San Diego. A downtown arena would best capture the mood, attitude and youth of a vibrant San Diego.”

Cooper said he hasn’t watched a pro basketball or hockey game in years and rarely sees them on television. He favors the arias of operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti, whose singing he promised will be amplified by the multimillion-dollar sound system he plans to install in the new building.

Why Get Involved?

Absent a passion in sports, why did he get involved in such a project?

“Richard talked me into it,” he said, referring to partner Richard Esquinas, an executive with the Career Guidance Foundation and the husband of Cooper’s niece.

Cooper said he believes San Diego has suffered from absentee involvement in not only the arena but the franchises that left it behind. He said he has no interest in owning a franchise, merely in running the building.

“You have to be able to create more revenues, and to do that you have to manage the facility,” he said. “Once we get the building, we’ll get the teams, and then everyone will be happy. We’ll see to it.”