Inglewood Sweetens the Pot in Its Attempt to Win Arena

Inglewood officials, signaling that they are not about to give up in their high-stakes battle to keep the Kings and the Lakers in town, have sweetened their offer to team owners--and taken a few more jabs at rival Los Angeles in the bargain.

A representative for the Kings’ owners, who recently submitted a nonbinding proposal to Los Angeles to build a downtown arena, said Thursday that the Inglewood proposal--which includes free land and up to $30 million in cash--is under study. The Kings will not submit their own proposal to Inglewood for at least several more days, the representative said.

“The [Inglewood] proposal was a slight modification to a proposal we had received a couple of weeks ago,” John Semcken, the owners’ representative, said of a letter from Inglewood City Manager Paul D. Eckles.

The Kings’ owners, seeking to build a sports and entertainment complex to replace the Forum in Inglewood, have been engaged in talks with Los Angeles and Inglewood about new sites. They submitted a written proposal to Los Angeles officials almost two weeks ago but made it clear that they would continue talks with Inglewood until they had a firm commitment from Los Angeles.

Both cities would provide free land for the complex--at a Convention Center site in Los Angeles and at Hollywood Park next to the Forum in Inglewood.

The Los Angeles plan would call for the city to commit up to $70.5 million for land costs.

Inglewood is offering land at Hollywood Park for free to the Kings and is offering up to $30 million in cash.

Inglewood would increase parking and ticket taxes to help foot the bill. But in the Kings’ proposal to Los Angeles, the team owners made it clear that they do not want a ticket tax at a downtown arena.

In his letter to team owners--written Aug. 23, just days after Los Angeles officials released the offer they had received--Eckles continued his city’s earlier shots at Los Angeles’ notoriously fractious leadership and cumbersome bureaucracy.

“I know that you have already concluded that Inglewood offers the opportunity for a cleaner, more risk-free deal,” Eckles wrote. Then, in an 11-point comparison, he criticized everything from Los Angeles’ site location (“a fringe area south of downtown”) to its development processing system. (“Count the the agencies and people that will have power over your project in Los Angeles. Some will surprise you.”)

“Keeping a project in Los Angeles on track and on time will be a major effort and may be impossible,” Eckles added. “Be prepared to spend large sums on lawyers and lobbyists to keep this project moving. In Inglewood, you can have the home telephone numbers of anybody you need. And it will be a very short list.”

In Los Angeles, where a special City Council panel will take up its first official consideration of the proposal Thursday, many political and civic leaders have rallied behind the proposal, and top city bureaucrats have pledged to work quickly on financial and permit requirements.