Clippers May Pick Arena Site This Year : Pro basketball: The owner expects to select one of four locations for construction of a 20,000-seat, $100-million facility.

Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling expects to choose by the end of this year one of four sites for construction of a new 20,000-seat, $100-million arena for the Clippers, according to team Executive Vice President Harley Frankel.

The most exotic idea under discussion would be to build the facility on top of an expanded Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, although Frankel indicated that more likely sites are in Burbank or at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, where the National Basketball Assn. team plays now.

A fourth site, near the Los Angeles Convention Center, appears the least likely, he said.

“We’re actively pursuing this,” Frankel said in an interview. “In the next three weeks, I have four or five meetings lined up.”

Frankel said he is fascinated with the Union Station idea, where talks with the property owner, Catellus Development, have centered on an arena similar in position to that of Madison Square Garden in New York, which is perched on top of Penn Station and benefits from its immediate proximity to a major rail and subway hub.

The same would be true at Union Station, which in future years will be a terminus of the Metro Rail subway, an extensive commuter rail system, Amtrak and bus lines of the Southern California Rapid Transit District.

However, Ted Tanner, vice president for development of Catellus, characterized the talks about an arena atop Union Station as “still preliminary.”

Frankel said the preparatory time, in terms of environmental impact reports and building permits, might be only about one year in Burbank while it could be three years in downtown Los Angeles.

The Burbank City Council recently agreed to give a partnership of real estate developer Lewis Wolff and actor-investor Wayne Rogers exclusive rights for three years to negotiate for construction of an indoor arena in Burbank. Wolff presently owns and operates the Burbank Airport Hilton hotel.

City Manager Robert Ovrom said Wednesday that about 50 acres of land adjacent to Burbank Airport could be used for an arena. The land, mostly owned by Lockheed Corp., will have to be “recycled in the next decade” due to a phaseout of defense and aerospace production in the area, Ovrom said.

“We are very enthusiastic about an arena,” Ovrom added. “In addition to Clipper games, it would attract everything from your circuses and ice shows and Ice Capades to concerts, . . . An undertaking like that has to be a home run for Burbank.”

The city manager noted that two major freeways, the Golden State and the Ventura, bracket the area and that there will also be stops nearby on two planned commuter rail lines.

A Burbank site, he said, “would not be the quagmire of problems that would be entailed in going over Union Station. That’s a very clever idea, but sometimes cleverness can be complicated.”

Dan Garcia, senior vice president for real estate and public affairs of Warner Brothers, said that company has entered into preliminary discussions with Wolff and Rogers about joining as a partner in developing a Burbank site for the Clippers.

At the Sports Arena, meanwhile, a Spectacor official said there have been talks about renovating the facility for the Clippers.

“We’ve had a preliminary look at building 75 to 150 luxury suites and providing up to 20,000 seats total in the shell of the present arena,” Peter Luucko, Southwestern regional vice president for Spectacor, said. “So far, this is only conceptual.”

Although sporadic talks have taken place with the Clippers over the last four years, Luucko said that, in fact, “we’re just getting started” at looking at financing and other details.

Spectacor’s plans to reconstruct the Coliseum were put on indefinite hold in December as a result of financing problems, and although the company expressed hope about coming up with new plans for the Coliseum by the end of March, nothing has yet been forthcoming.

As for the Sports Arena, Luucko said, “First things first. We must get a rough idea of what the costs would be and what amenities we could provide, and then sit down with the Clippers and see what can be done.”

Frankel said the Clippers’ position is that, if it is done at the Sports Arena, it must be “a whole new building inside the existing shell.”

As for the area near the Los Angeles Convention Center, it has never been specified what exact land would be used, in part because of fears of driving up the price. But in any event, Frankel indicated this would be expensive and complicated and is less likely than other sites.