King Owners Narrow Stadium Site to Three Possibilities

King co-owners Philip F. Anschutz and Edward P. Roski Jr., hope to open their new sports and entertainment complex by Sept. 1, 1999, and it appears the Kings and Lakers will be playing in Los Angeles or Inglewood.

King governor and chairman Robert Sanderman said the selection process has come down to three sites, Hollywood Park in Inglewood, the Convention Center and downtown Los Angeles on land near Chinatown owned by Southern Pacific Railroad.

Anschutz is the largest shareholder of Southern Pacific, which is trying to merge with Union Pacific. Sanderman said he believes that would not impact any proposed plans for a downtown site.

“We’ve got to name our site by this summer,” Sanderman said Monday from his Denver office. “We want to get started on construction in the summer of ’97 and it can take 24 months or more.”

Before construction begins, there is about a year-long process of zoning and entitlement. Sanderman said a couple of sites were eliminated because of an inability to move quickly enough.

But before the King owners select a final site, they are probably going to hire an architectural firm, according to Sanderman, who added there are four under consideration.

One of them is industry heavyweight, HOK Sports of Kansas City, which produced designs for the America West Arena in Phoenix and the Pond in Anaheim. HOK was also hired earlier in the year by the Coliseum Commission to produce designs for an arena study exploring the idea of building a new basketball facility next to the Sports Arena.

In another development, Sanderman said he expects to hire an executive to run the business side of the Kings--particularly focusing on the marketing and sponsorship--by the end of the month.

He said there are three candidates, one of whom is Tim Leiweke, the president and chief executive officer of U.S. Skiing. Leiweke, who was formerly the president of the Denver Nuggets, is believed to make about $150,000 a year at U.S. Skiing.