New Owners Look Ahead

Sometime in October, the San Diego Sports Arena’s lease will transfer ownership and the City Council will officially give its blessing, setting in place the group that hopes to build a new indoor sports mecca--preferably downtown--and lure a new generation of professional sports franchises here.

Although the arena ownership was supposed to have closed escrow by now, some negotiations continue, and the matter has not yet been scheduled on the City Council docket. But shortly, it will transfer from Harry Cooper to the group headed by developer Ronald Hahn and former Padre president Ballard Smith--a group strongly committed to building a new arena and courting teams from the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Assn.

That was a dream Cooper, a La Jolla entrepreneur, had when he acquired the Sports Arena lease with his partner, Richard Esquinas, in 1989. Cooper--who foresaw a facility to rival the new 24,000-seat Palace of Auburn Hills in suburban Detroit, came to discover he didn’t have the clout in City Hall, and when he began to talk about building an arena on land he owns in the Sorrento Valley golden triangle, he found himself at odds with city officials who view a new arena as a cornerstone in downtown renovation.

With the arena lease going into escrow last June, Esquinas became Sports Arena president, and will continue to run the arena’s day-to-day operation, while also working with the new ownership group on getting a new arena built. The new group, Esquinas said, is more politically aware than was Cooper.

“It’s going to take some political involvement. The city is going to have to come forward and help make it happen,” Esquinas said in an interview last week. The strongest City Council supporter of a new arena has been Ron Roberts, whose landslide re-election last week didn’t diminish the arena group’s optimism.

Roberts’ backing, however, is limited to a downtown site. “I’m not so sure we’re going to make that decision,” Smith said. “I think the politicians are going to make that decision.”

Hahn’s presence bolsters the hopes of a downtown site for a new arena. He’s the son of downtown developer Ernest Hahn, who heads the Centre City Planning Committee. But at this point, nobody is promising the sports and entertainment complex will be downtown.

Esquinas noted, “(Ron) Hahn and the others will run interference with the City Council while I’ll be running the day-to-day things (at the arena). You can’t do both. Harry and I tried and it doesn’t work.”

He added, “I’m confident we’ll have a new arena in San Diego, maybe in four or five years. We have a solid team committed to the project--wherever it turns out to be and is economically feasible.”

Estimates are that a privately built 20,000-seat arena plus an investment in pro franchises could run $200 million or more.

All concerned agree an NHL team is a must in any new arena scenario. Major league basketball already has been a three-time loser in San Diego: The NBA’s Rockets moved to Houston; the Conquistadors/Sails of the American Basketball Assn. went out of business; and the Clippers of the NBA moved to Los Angeles. People who defend San Diego as a potential NBA site say neither team was good enough to deserve the kind of support that, for comparison, the Lakers get in Los Angeles, where as perennial title contenders they play to near-capacity in the 17,500-seat Forum.

Hockey took off in Southern California when Kings owner Bruce McNall brought in superstar Wayne Gretzky three years ago. San Jose received an expansion team for this season. It’s thought McNall would like to see another team in Southern California, and the NHL has expressed interest in San Diego--the largest market in the United States without an NHL team.

A San Diego group approached the NHL last year and probably will do so again at its December meetings. The NHL has plans for at least four more expansion teams by the end of the 1990s. A new arena would be one of the selling points.

Howard Baldwin, who co-owns the San Diego Gulls of the International Hockey League with Smith and has a considerable background in the NHL, said the league “has got to know there’s going to be a new arena” to consider San Diego for expansion.

“One can’t survive without luxury boxes, season tickets, those things that bring in that kind of revenue,” he said, adding, “I think there’s the possibility (of expansion) to San Diego. If they stick to their (expansion) plans I would hope San Diego would be one (of the cities chosen).”

Another factor in a franchise or franchises coming to San Diego--as well as picking an arena site--could be the involvement of Los Angeles sports entrepreneur Jerry Buss, who owns the Forum, the Lakers and used to own the Kings. Now that the Kings have become a hit in L.A., Buss would like to get back into the NHL, possibly in partnership with Smith and Baldwin.

“That’s one of the possibilities,” Smith said. “It doesn’t make sense for me to commit to any one person--the goal is an NHL team and a new arena, and the NBA. I’ll join with anybody who can accomplish that, but if it’s Buss, fine.”

Baldwin, who is based in Los Angeles, said, “I’ve known (Buss) for a long time. . . . I would welcome the opportunity to sit down with him to see if we can work together. I think he has a real interest (in an NHL team in San Diego), and I commend that.”

Meanwhile, the 25-year-old Sports Arena is the focus of most major indoor events here, and Esquinas said arena management is trying to spruce up the facility and give it more of a major league look. When the arena’s fiscal year ends Monday, it will have had its busiest year with more than 200 events, Esquinas said.

That included an NHL exhibition game Friday between the New Jersey Devils and the San Jose Sharks. October’s schedule includes several Gulls and Sockers games, a Clippers exhibition and Ice Capades.

The arena seats 13,600 for basketball, 14,100 for hockey. Esquinas pointed out that if San Diego was to get a pro team--either by transfer or expansion--by the mid-1990s, that team might have to play in the Sports Arena while a new one is being built.

“We’re trying to create a new feeling about the San Diego Sports Arena, we’re putting a lot of money back into the physical plant because we feel it is a reflection of a new arena,” Esquinas said. “You’ll see a lot of changes in the operation (after the lease changes hands) that will significantly upgrade the patrons’ experience. We’re committed to making this building function better.”