Clippers Going Downtown

There’s nothing like moving into an expensive home with sharp new roommates to convince a guy to stop walking around in his raggedy underwear.

At least, that is the hope today when Donald Sterling announces that, two years hence, his Clippers will be bunking in the sparkling downtown Staples Center with the Kings and Lakers.

Guess who gets the floor?

If the new deal is to be understood correctly, the Clippers can play only on dates and times when the Kings and Lakers would not dare, which means a whole lot of early-bird and after-school specials.

Then there are the occasions that the two basketball teams will compete on the same day, at which point the Clippers will play in the J.V. game.

Nonetheless, this is good for the city, and perhaps great for the Clippers.

The city benefits because fans who cannot afford Laker tickets still will be able to experience pro basketball in this country’s best arena. Even if it is only by watching Laker highlights during Clipper halftimes.

The Clippers could benefit too because, for once, it seems, Sterling must clean up his act. Fix that leak. Paint those walls. Get those refrigerators out of the backyard.

Suddenly, he will be accountable no longer to a modest Sports Arena rent and a few dozen hearty fans, but to a whole new set of economics and perceptions.

In other words, where he is moving, everyone has more expensive cars, and nobody fixes them on the front lawn.

It is perhaps too much to ask this change of address also include a change of personality. But of all the things written about one of the most impossible-to-embarrass owners in sports, nobody has ever said Donald Sterling doesn’t understand real estate.

He considered the money he was losing while his team was wasting away at the Sports Arena--an estimated $6 million a year--little more than an investment in a product whose equity was skyrocketing.

His reputation was taking a beating, but his long-term gains were growing by the game. For the quirky multimillionaire, it was a fair trade.

Remember, this is a guy who was once content to sit on a huge, mostly empty building in the heart of Beverly Hills because he thought it was making him money.

But in 1999, everything changes.

The money he will lose if he continues to operate his team in the same shoddy fashion at Staples Center--while paying much higher rent and trying to fill thousands more seats--will be far too much for him to consider it merely an investment.

It will be a true loss, not the sort on the scoreboard that he so easily dismisses, but the kind in that bankbook that he cannot stomach.

“This forces the issue,” said Steven Soboroff, advisor to Mayor Richard Riordan. “Donald Sterling will not dog-paddle. He has to build a team.”

And if he does, what a monetary killing he will make. The deal to be announced today is similar to the cushy deal he turned down from Anaheim to move permanently to the Arrowhead Pond--but at least 30 minutes closer to his backyard.

In the last few years, by turning down countless offers while being called countless names, dumb Donald Sterling ended up with everything he wanted.

But will it be everything the fans want?

Longtime observers know that Sterling does not have to build a team any more than he had to keep Danny Manning. As his frustrated personnel people will attest, he doesn’t feel he has to do anything.

But there is hope here that maybe this move will make things different.

That maybe, even if the money doesn’t shake Sterling, spending 41 nights a year sitting under all those Laker banners will.

That maybe, even if 60 losses don’t embarrass him, the fleeing of his Westside buddies to those Friday night and Sunday afternoon Laker games will.

As ugly as things became during their previous 18 years at the Sports Arena, you got the feeling that Sterling liked being the main act there, like the mayor of Skid Row.

If things are still that ugly in two years at the Staples Center, he’ll be just another bum.

There are already signs that he knows it.

Within a couple of days, Sterling could begin the new Clipper era by dumping Coach Bill Fitch, less than a year after giving him a two-year contract extension worth $4 million.

Despite the players’ complaints --or maybe because of them--for four years Fitch has been a good leader for some bad teams. And Sterling hates giving away money even more than he hates losing it.

But when you want to change an image, first thing you do is change the boss.

After that? Who knows? Sterling will never sell the team while conscious. He has even rejected lucrative offers to give up daily control.

But there is a thought that he realizes the enormity of moving his small, harried group into the fancy digs, and doesn’t want the hassle of doing it himself.

Who knows, maybe he might be convinced to share the responsibilities. He might even--gasp--start allowing his basketball men to make the basketball decisions.

OK, OK, at this point, I’ll settle for new uniforms.

But one can dream. That’s what today’s announcement is about, dreaming of the time when this NBA-mad place can watch two top NBA teams in a wondrous downtown arena, filling the seats, the streets, maybe even our hearts.

And if the Clippers are destined to forever be the, uh, Clippers? At least we’ll be laughing in style.

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THREE’S COMPANY--OF A CROWD?

IMPACT

WHAT IT MEANS FOR CLIPPERS: They upgrade from aging Sports Arena to state-of-the-art facility that meets owner Donald Sterling’s main criterion--to stay in L.A.

WHAT IT MEANS TO L.A.: The downtown’s new showpiece, built largely with private financing, is now the only indooor arena to house three major professional sports teams. That’s three major pieces for a downtown revitalization plan that is to include shops, reastaurants, theater and--they can dream--an NFL franchise in a revamped Coliseum.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR FOX: By helping cement the deal with the Staples Center, Rupert Murdoch’s group appears to have gotten a big step up on Disney intheir battle for the Clippers’ regional cable broadcast rights. And with its 40% stake in the arena, Fox has a piece of a potential major entertainment events ranging from the Final Four to the Grammy Awards.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR THE NBA: Commissioner David Stern would have prefered that the Clippers moved to the Arrowhead Pondof anaheim to avoid scheduling and shared-market concerns that will crop up at the Staples Center. Then again, they probably think anything is an improvement over the Sports Arena.

ON THE HOME FRONT

A look at how the schedules of the three future tenants of the Staples Center coexisted this season:

0: Times Lakers, Clippers and Kings played at home on the same day.

11: Times Clippers, Kings played at home on same day.

9: Times Lakers and Clippers played at home on same day.

41: Number of home dates for Clippers, Lakers and Kings.

THE FACTS

WHAT: The Clippers agreed to a six-year lease to play in the downtown Staples Center when it opens in the fall of 1999.

WHEN: The deal was signed Monday and is expected to be formally announced at a news conference today.

ALSO: The Fox Group, which spent $311 million to purchase the dodgers in a deal that was approved last month, has purchased an interest in the Staples Center as well as an option that would eventually give it a stake in the Lakers.

PENDING: Approval from the NBA.

SPORTS ARENA: The Clippers will play one more season in the venue that has been their home since they moved from San Diego before the 1984-85 season.