Burbank Gets Boost in Quest for a Pro Team : Development: Warner Bros. enters an agreement to work on plans for an arena. The city hopes that the Clippers can be enticed to move there.

Warner Bros. has joined forces with a local development partnership to consider building a $100-million arena in Burbank that the city hopes would attract the Los Angeles Clippers or some other professional sports team.

Daniel P. Garcia, senior vice president for real estate and public affairs for Warner Bros., said Monday that the Burbank studio entered into a joint-venture agreement Friday with Lewis N. Wolff, co-owner of the Burbank Airport Hilton, and actor-investor Wayne Rogers, who co-starred in the “MASH” television series.

The Burbank City Council recently gave Wolff and Rogers exclusive rights for three years to develop plans to build an indoor arena in the city for sporting and entertainment events.

Clippers owner Donald Sterling has said he expects to choose one of four sites by the end of the year for construction of a 20,000-seat arena for the Clippers.

Besides Burbank, the Clippers are considering staying at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, where the National Basketball Assn. team now plays, or moving to sites near the Los Angeles Convention Center or atop the expanded Union Station downtown.

Burbank officials, who support the idea of having an arena in the city, “are certainly happy about Warner’s relationship to this because of their preeminent role in the community,” said Bob Tague, Burbank’s community development director.

One possible site, city officials say, is about 50 acres next to Burbank Airport--mostly owned by Lockheed Corp.--which will be left empty due to the phaseout of defense and aerospace production in the area.

Garcia, in a telephone interview from Australia, said he thought that Warner’s involvement would help Burbank’s chances of getting an arena built and of possibly wooing the Clippers.

“I think most people will react to our joining as a strong sign that Burbank is a serious contender,” Garcia said. “We have the name, we have the entertainment, we have my development experience.”

Garcia, an expert on zoning laws and community planning, served for 10 years as president of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission and is a close confidant of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley.

He said Warner Bros. has committed itself to helping pay some of the partnership’s preliminary expenses, such as architectural, engineering and traffic studies to determine whether Burbank would be a feasible site.

He declined to discuss specifics about Warner’s financial or operational involvement in the project.

Warner would use such an arena for entertainment events, according to Garcia, who said he plans to meet with Clippers representatives and Burbank officials as soon as he gets back from his business trip. He also said that in addition to the Lockheed property, other sites in the redevelopment area around the airport could be used for an arena.

Warner “is interested in what we are--attracting a major franchise,” Wolff said. “The Clippers are the ones we’re talking to right now.”

Harley Frankel, executive vice president of the Clippers, agreed that the joint venture is a boost for Burbank’s chances to become the team’s home, although he wouldn’t say whether any of the four sites has emerged as a front-runner.

“We are pleased that Warner has joined forces with Lew Wolff,” Frankel said. “We think they are an outstanding organization, and the combination of their entertainment skills and our basketball knowledge is a nice blend for an arena. . . . The Warner decision is a very positive step in the right direction.”

Frankel said the team would only stay at the Sports Arena if “a brand-new building” is constructed, either on the same site or within the shell of the existing structure. He also has said the Convention Center site would be complicated and expensive, and is a less likely alternative than other sites.