Spectacor Works Both Ends of Deal : Arenas: The company that operates the Sports Arena plans to do the same in Santa Ana despite a potential contractual conflict.

The company that would operate a proposed indoor sports arena in Santa Ana faces a potential contractual conflict because of its deal with the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission, a commission official says.

As a result, Spectacor Management Group, the world’s largest operator of indoor arenas, is in the peculiar position of trying to keep a professional basketball team in Los Angeles while trying to bring a professional basketball team to Santa Ana.

Spectacor operates the Los Angeles Sports Arena under a contract that prohibits it from managing a similar facility within 75 miles. Yet the management firm is proposing to do just that in Santa Ana, 30 miles down the freeway.

Spectacor “cannot be involved” in the operation of an arena in Santa Ana while under contract with the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission, said Margaret Farnum, Commission administrative officer.

As long as the Philadelphia-based Spectacor has not signed a contract to operate the proposed 20,000-seat Santa Ana Arena there is no problem, she said.

Spectacor Vice President Don Webb said there are ways around the Los Angeles contract restrictions.

“Becoming the owner (of the Los Angeles Sports Arena) is one way to do it,” he said. Replacing the Coliseum Commission as owner of the Los Angeles Sports Arena would “eliminate the financial exposure” of the commission, Webb said.

Santa Ana city officials and Spectacor are expected to sign a memo of understanding this month outlining their respective roles in the proposed arena.

To keep the Clippers in Los Angeles, Spectacor has proposed building a $100 million indoor arena.

To attract an NBA or NHL team to Santa Ana, Spectacor is a partner in a group that has proposed building a $75 million indoor arena.

In each city, Spectacor intends to operate the arena.

And in both cities, Spectacor is negotiating with public agencies to make this possible.

In Los Angeles, Spectacor is under contract with the Coliseum Commission to operate the Sports Arena, the Clippers’ current home, and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Spectacor also is in a three-way negotiation with the team and the commission to keep the Clippers from leaving town. With the Los Angeles Raiders leaving town, it is possible the Clippers’ new arena may receive more of Spectacor’s attention than when the firm was trying to revamp the Coliseum to keep the football team.

In Santa Ana, Spectacor is negotiating in the hope that the city will subsidize its new arena.

Is it possible for the company to pull off deals for arenas 30 miles apart at a combined cost of more than $175 million?

Webb says the company is exploring the feasibility of doing just that.

But what if only one arena is built? And what if that arena is in Santa Ana? Would the Clippers leave Los Angeles for Santa Ana?

Webb is adamant that his company is not interested in bringing the Clippers to Santa Ana.

“We would not be interested in becoming involved in Santa Ana if the purpose were to attract the Clippers away from the Los Angeles Sports Arena,” Webb said. “We are not going to become involved in the development of an arena anywhere that has as one of its purposes attracting the Clippers to play there.”

Webb conceded, however, that if the Clippers “couldn’t reach a deal in Los Angeles, they would have to play somewhere.”

Clippers owner Donald Sterling refused to speculate on whether he would move his team to Santa Ana in the event there is no progress in negotiations for a new arena in Los Angeles. But he did say: “We will have to do what’s in the franchise’s best interest.

“We must have a new state-of-the-art facility to play in,” Sterling said. “That’s absolutely mandatory. The question is, who will provide us with that facility? At this point we don’t know.

“We have an excellent relationship with Spectacor and the City of Los Angeles, but nothing has happened. We’re patiently waiting.”

Webb and other Spectacor officials say they are not tempted to play the cities of Santa Ana and Los Angeles against each other during negotiations with the Clippers.

To do so, Webb said, would be a conflict of interest.

“We are not talking to the Clippers,” said Tony Guanci, whose King-Guanci Development Inc. is in partnership with Spectacor in the Santa Ana proposal. “That would be a case where you have a problem.”

Sterling said his team has not been offered “an opportunity to play basketball in Santa Ana, and we haven’t considered it.” Nevertheless, Spectacor has many irons in the fire. The company is proposing another indoor arena in San Francisco. That arena also will need a team.

And, until recently, Spectacor had proposed an arena in the Seattle area to keep the dissatisfied SuperSonics from leaving.

But apparently only the Los Angeles-Santa Ana arenas are affected by Spectacor’s contractual restrictions.

“We’re in compliance with the (Los Angeles) contract,” Webb said.

“If the commission is bearing the financial liability for the sports arena . . . then they need to be assured that we are not providing ruinous competition at their expense.” But if Spectacor assumes ownership of the Los Angeles arena, there would be no need for a noncompetition clause, he said.

Spectacor has proposed such a “privatization” of the Los Angeles Sports Arena, under which it would own and finance a new facility. The idea was approved--but only in concept--by the Coliseum Commission.

Guanci said the privatization plan would eliminate Spectacor’s potential conflict of interest.

“You’ll see Spectacor . . . being a little more forward” in its dealings in Santa Ana, Guanci said. “They don’t foresee a conflict now that (privatization) has been approved.”

O.C. ARENAS: CLOSE-UP

ANAHEIM ARENA * $94-million conctruction costs financed by issuing bonds. Issuing agency has not yet been identified. * City may subsidize up to $1.5 million a year, but is to be repaid out of the following year’s revenue. City has issued $18 million in bonds to purchase land for the arena. * 20,000 seats, 80 luxury suites * Potential tenants: NHL or NBA or Major Indoor Soccor League team * Targeted opening: Fall, 1991, court challenges may delay. * To be operated by Ogden Corp. and Nederlander Group. * Ownership: Public, the city of Anaheim

SANTA ANA ARENA * $75-million conctruction costs financed by investors who have not yet been identified. * City may subsidize up to $1 million a year for 10 years, then draw from profits to be repaid. * 20,000 seats, 120 luxury suites * Potential tenants: NHL or NBA team * Targeted opening: Fall, 1992 * To be operated by Spectator Management Group and MCA Entertainment. * Ownership: Private Source: Santa Ana and Anaheim arena officials and the cities.

ANAHEIM ARENA: A CLOSER LOOK

There are expected to be no bad seats in the proposed state-of-the-art 20,000-seat arena. Some of the better seats, however, will be in the 80 luxury suites that will ring the arena on two levels.

The Luxury Suites: A major source of income for the arena will come from corporate buyers of enclosed luxury suites, similar to those in Anaheim Stadium.

SPECTACOR AND THE SANTA ANA ARENA:

Spectacor Management Group would operate the Santa Ana Arena.

Parent company: Spectacor, privately owned by Ed Snider and based in Philadelphia, Penn., with revenue of $100 million in 1988.

Spectacor Management Group bills itself as: “The international leader in the private management of public assembly facilities.”

MCA Entertainment, a division of the Music Corporation of America, would be the booking agent for arena concerts, family shows and other events.

Background: In 1988 Spectacor Management Group merged with Facility Management Group owned by the Pritzker family of Chicago, one of the 10 wealthiest families in America. Spectacor’s Ed Snider also owns the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League.

Among Spectacor’s other management contracts are:

* Centrum, Worcester, Mass.

* Coliseum, Richmond, Va.

* Kellogg Arena, Battle Creek, Mich.

* Knickerbocker Arena, Albany, N.Y.

* Knight Center, Miami, Fla.

* Lakeland Civic Center, Lakeland, Fla.

* Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center, Long Beach, Ca.

* Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, La.

* Memorial Coliseum and Sports Arena, Los Angeles, Ca.

* Miami Convention and Civic Center, Miami, Fla.

* Moscone Center, Civic Auditorium and Brooks Hall, San Francisco, Ca.

* Niagara Falls Convention and Civic Center, Niagara Falls, N.Y.

* Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, N.Y.

* Philadelphia Civic Center, Philadelphia, Penn.

* Spectrum, Philadelphia, Penn.

* St. Louis Arena, St. Louis, Mo.

* Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, Penn.

* RISKY BUSINESS

Without commitments from pro teams, the cities of Santa Ana and Anaheim are courting disaster in the race to build indoor sports facilities. A1