Boyarsky on Arena Deal

The actual, though unelected, mayor of Los Angeles, Steve Soboroff (a property developer), assures columnist Bill Boyarsky (June 23) that the Kings and Lakers will play in the new downtown arena for 25 years. The terms of the lease, however, are confidential. No one is to examine them--not Boyarsky, not the City Council and certainly not the taxpayers who will ante up $70 million in bond funds plus an additional $100 million in interest over 20 years.

First, it is absurd to use public money to enhance the profits of wealthy private sports entrepreneurs. Second, it is absurd to create a facility that will bring 8,000 cars to the intersection of the Harbor and Santa Monica freeways at 7 p.m. 80 times a year. Third, it borders on the criminal to abandon (at great public expense) a perfectly good, functioning and profitable arena--the Forum. The unfounded optimism about potential economic benefits for downtown Los Angeles ignores the potential economic havoc to Inglewood.

City Council members who vote for this abomination without examining the lease that Philip Anschutz and Ed Roski (as team owners) have signed with themselves (as arena builders) will be guilty of impeachable malfeasance.

MARVIN KLOTZ

Venice

Comparing the worst rotten apples with the best fresh oranges took away from the fact that Boyarsky did acknowledge the Lakers/Kings arena as a “sign that we’re out of our civic funk” and as a project that “may turn things around for the nearby money-losing Convention Center.”

The Baltimore, Rams and Raiders rotten-apple deals did not contain the “stay and play” obligations that L.A. will enjoy as our Lakers and Kings dunk and slap for 25 years at the arena. The freshness of that orange has been verified by the city attorney and two sets of outside counsel.

STEVEN SOBOROFF

Senior Advisor to the Mayor

Los Angeles