INGLEWOOD : City Pins Hopes for Card Club on Sports Figures

Inglewood’s hopes for a timely opening of Hollywood Park’s new card club casino--and the millions of dollars in revenues it would bring the city--rest with a group headed by a former Los Angeles Rams executive and an ex-Washington Redskins quarterback.

In an agreement with Hollywood Park Inc., Don Klosterman, general manager of the Rams football team in the 1970s, and Eddie LeBaron, a Redskins quarterback in the 1950s and chief operating officer for the Atlanta Falcons in the 1980s, would lease the 200-table club.

Inglewood and Hollywood Park officials had hoped the card club would open in early January, but the state attorney general’s office denied a gambling license to a group that included Edward Allred, a partner in the Los Alamitos Race Course. In denying the license, the state cited Allred’s previous stock ownership in out-of-state gambling businesses.

The state’s action infuriated Inglewood officials, who said the attorney general’s office was finding excuses not to approve the license.

“We haven’t been able to understand their position at all,” said City Manger Paul D. Eckles. “One of the things we don’t think they’ve been sensitive to is the magnitude and the importance of this project in our city.”

Klosterman and LeBaron still must apply for a state license and pass a series of background checks by Inglewood officials.

“We’d never suggest to the attorney general that he not do the same kind of due diligence that we intend to when we get the application, but I can tell you we’re going to expedite our reviews, and we hope we can approve it,” Eckles said.

Eckles estimated that the card club could produce about $10 million a year for the city and employ about 2,500 people. Based on the hope that it will be opened soon after July 1, Eckles is including about $4 million in revenue from the card club in the fiscal 1994 budget.