Orange County Plans for Arena Hurt by L.A. Offer

Private developers offered Wednesday to replace the Los Angeles Sports Arena with a $100-million indoor arena for the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, a deal that casts a cloud over competing plans for similar facilities in Santa Ana and Anaheim.

Two of the three financial backers of the proposed Los Angeles arena--MCA Inc. and Spectacor Management Group--also are involved in the financing of a proposed $85-million arena in Santa Ana. However, MCA Music Entertainment Group Chairman Irving Azoff said Wednesday that the Los Angeles deal would have no impact on arena plans for Santa Ana.

“Orange County and L.A. are two separate markets both very capable of supporting their own arena,” Azoff said. “This just ends speculation about whether the Clippers will be moving their team to Orange County.”

Clippers owner Donald T. Sterling had flirted with the idea of moving to Orange County, and in May demanded that Sports Arena managers build a new facility as a condition of signing a long-term lease. But he had reiterated on several occasions that he preferred to keep his team in Los Angeles, and reacted to Wednesday’s offer with immediate enthusiasm.

“I think this offer is a victory for Los Angeles,” Sterling said, adding that the Clippers will sign a 30-year lease if the new arena is built.

There have been frequent assessments that an arena in Anaheim or Santa Ana 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.”

Azoff disagreed. Sterling’s decision to stay in Los Angeles would not impede arena plans in Santa Ana, he said. “There are a lot of other NBA teams,” Azoff said. But when asked whether there are negotiations under way to bring an NBA team to Santa Ana, he said, “I know of none.”

In Anaheim, Mayor Fred Hunter predicted that Wednesday’s deal will spell the end of Santa Ana’s arena plans. “It’s not economically feasible to have (the same group) build one in Santa Ana and one in Los Angeles,” he said.

Hunter said that Anaheim’s plans to build an $85-million arena northeast of Anaheim Stadium will not be affected by the Clippers’ staying in Los Angeles. “I don’t want to speculate on what teams, but I really believe that we’re going to get an existing team or an expansion team,” he said. “The market is here in Orange County.”

Additionally, a private management contract with the Los Angeles Coliseum may keep Spectacor from participating in the proposed Santa Ana arena. Joel Ralph, the general manager of the Coliseum and Sports Arena, said in a recent interview with The Times that the contract signed by Spectacor bars that company from participating in construction of any stadium within a 75-mile radius. MCA would not be barred from participating under its contract with the Coliseum.

Officials of Santa Fe Pacific Co., King-Guanci Realty Co. and Santa Ana were not available for comment Wednesday night on their plans to build a 20,000-seat arena on 17 acres at Edinger Avenue and Lyon Street.

The proposed Los Angeles arena is contingent upon agreement by the Coliseum Commission to give the developers a long-term ground lease. In addition to MCA and Spectacor, the new arena would be financed by the Pritzker family, which owns the Hyatt Regency hotel chain. The facility would seat 21,500, with 200 luxury suites and 2,000 club seats.

Coliseum Commission President Richard Riordan was quick to give the offer his backing.

“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.”

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 present Sports Arena, a short distance from the proposed new facility.

Participating in Wednesday’s meeting besides Sterling were Ed Snider and Antonio Tavaras, Spectacor chairman and president, respectively, and Azoff.

“The Clippers are an integral part of Los Angeles,” declared Snider, “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, and plans call for it 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 declared.

Construction of a new indoor arena and signing of the Clippers to a long-term lease would constitute 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.