Anaheim, Ogden Still Have Hoop Dreams

City officials and operators of the Pond were optimistic Friday that a National Basketball Assn. team will someday play at the arena, but they admit there is no hope that it will happen by next season now that the Los Angeles Clippers have decided not to move to the city.

“There is really no opportunity for us to put anything together for next season,” said John Nicoletti, a spokesman for the Pond. “We’ve reached a point where the NBA needs to set their schedule.”

That’s bad news for the city, which stands to lose millions of dollars because no basketball team has moved to the arena, which is owned by the city but run by a private company. Under its lease agreement with Ogden Corp., the city will be forced to pay $1.5 million to the company annually for five years unless an NBA team moves in. The maximum the city would pay is $7.5 million.

City Manager James D. Ruth said the city already has set aside the first $1.5-million payment, due in the fall of 1997.

The Clippers have flirted with Anaheim and the Pond’s operators over the three years the arena has existed, only to have team owner Donald T. Sterling stick to his hometown.

Clippers officials announced Thursday that the team would remain in Los Angeles and abruptly ended their most recent talks with Ogden. According to senior NBA sources, Sterling rejected a 12-year package worth $95 million--to be paid by Ogden and the city--to move to Anaheim.

City officials and Ogden see the Clippers--one of two NBA teams in Los Angeles--as the best bet for landing a professional basketball franchise. The NBA, Ogden officials say, has been reluctant to consider forming a third team in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

“The Clippers have always presented the best opportunity for an NBA team in Orange County, but we have never limited ourselves to only talking to the Clippers,” said Nicoletti, who declined to name who else the company has talked to.

Still, Pond and city officials do not see other immediate prospects on the horizon.

“We’ve been told there are no other teams moving soon and no plans for expansion,” Councilman Lou Lopez said. “I’m optimistic that maybe [the Clippers] will call us again after they sit down and reevaluate. I can’t understand why they just stopped talking to us.”

The lack of a basketball team will cost Ogden as well. The arena has lost money during each of its three years of operation. It lost about $5.3 million this fiscal year, and $8.5 million over its first two years, city officials said. It is projected to lose $6 million next year.

The addition of a professional basketball team would have offset or eliminated those losses, said Nicoletti, who added that Ogden expected the arena to lose money in its first 12 years.

Despite the operating deficit, Nicoletti stressed that the facility is “not in financial trouble. We will continue to operate in the manner that we have with no loss of service or cutbacks.”

The Pond has hosted the Clippers in the past, part of the NBA’s efforts to expose the league to areas that don’t have franchises, Nicoletti said. The team has played 15 regular-season games at the arena in the last three seasons, averaging 15,954 spectators. The team will play seven games in Anaheim next season.

Ruth said the Pond is the ideal home for the Clippers.

“I think the NBA has been actively encouraging the Clippers to move to Anaheim,” he said. League officials have said they would like their teams to play in new or upgraded arenas, but they have never publicly suggested the Clippers move to Anaheim.

“The economics are better here, they get great crowds and good support here that they don’t get in L.A. It’s to professional basketball’s benefit to relocate to Anaheim,” Ruth said.

Added Nicoletti: “At this point, our goal is to let the dust settle and let both parties look at what went right and what went wrong with the deal that was in front of everyone.

“It is in our best interests to maintain a solid working relationship with the Clippers because they’ll be playing seven games here this coming season and we’re always looking to bring them or another professional basketball team to Orange County.”