Managers of Coliseum Offer to Build Clippers a $100-Million Arena

An offer to build a new $100-million indoor arena on the grounds of Exposition Park to replace the Los Angeles Sports Arena was made Wednesday to the Los Angeles Clippers basketball franchise by the Coliseum complex’s private business managers.

The business executives said their offer is contingent on the Clippers signing a 30-year lease and approval by the Coliseum Commission of a ground lease to the developers.

There were quick indications that neither condition would be a major obstacle.

Clippers owner Donald T. Sterling, who in May had demanded construction of such a facility as a condition of signing a long-term lease, reacted to the offer with immediate enthusiasm.

Luxury Suites

The privately financed arena would have a total seating capacity of 21,500 and contain 200 luxury suites and 2,000 club seats. The suites would, for the first time, give the Clippers a certain competitive business advantage over the Los Angeles Lakers, the highly successful cross-town franchise that has long overshadowed them.

Coliseum Commission President Richard Riordan was quick to endorse the offer by MCA Inc., Spectacor Management Group and backed by the Pritzker family, owners of the Hyatt Regency hotel chain.

“It’s something that I will definitely support and recommend to the full commission,” Riordan said. “I’m very enthusiastic about this. It’s the type of forward thinking we need to keep teams in the Coliseum complex.”

Probing the Economics

Riordan said he will promptly appoint a committee of commissioners to study the economics of the proposal.

Sterling said: “We’re reviewing the proposed lease and expect to move forward after getting commission approval. The principals in this venture assure us they are putting up all the cash and they say the new arena can be completed in two years.”

In the meantime, the Clippers and USC would continue to play basketball in the current Sports Arena, a short distance from the new facility.

A new indoor arena in Los Angeles, and a long-term Clippers lease, could put a crimp in plans in Orange County to construct a new indoor arena there in either Santa Ana or Anaheim. There have been frequent assessments that such an arena could not be guaranteed financial viability without a National Basketball Assn. franchise, and the NBA is believed unlikely to approve a third franchise, besides the Lakers and Clippers, in the Los Angeles-Orange County metropolitan area.

Sterling said Wednesday night, “I don’t know, without a franchise, that there’s much hope for an arena to be successful in Orange County.

“I think this offer is a victory for Los Angeles,” said the Clippers owner, who in recent months had reiterated on numerous occasions that he preferred to keep his team in Los Angeles rather than move to Anaheim or Santa Ana.

Participating in Wednesday’s meeting besides Sterling were Ed Snider and Antonio Tavaras, chairman and president respectively of Spectacor, and Irving Azoff, chairman of MCA Inc.’s Music Entertainment Group.

‘First-Class Facility’

“The Clippers are an integral part of Los Angeles,” Snider said, “and the new Sports Arena will provide them with a permanent home, second to none. They are a first-class organization and they deserve a first-class facility. Our goal is to be ready for the 1991-1992 season.”

The new arena would also be used for rock concerts and other entertainment events. Plans call for the arena to include “the most comfortable seats, and the most advanced technical lights, video and lighting systems in the nation,” a joint statement issued by the Coliseum private managers and the Clippers said.

Construction of a new indoor arena and signing of the Clippers to a long-term lease would be the most dramatic success yet for the Coliseum’s new private management arrangement. The same private managers are trying to negotiate a deal that would reconstruct the Coliseum in exchange for a new long-term lease keeping the Los Angeles Raiders football franchise in Los Angeles.