Sale of Forum to Owners of Staples Center Expected

The Great Western Forum, which will lose its major tenants when the Lakers and Kings move to the Staples Center this fall, is on the verge of being sold to the owners of the new downtown arena.

A deal for an estimated $25 million to $30 million could be completed within the next 48 hours, sources said. Both sides declined to comment on the transaction.

Philip Anschutz is the majority owner of the Staples Center; the Fox Group has 40%, and the remainder is owned by Ed Roski. Jerry Buss owns the Forum.

The Staples negotiators may have been spurred to complete the deal by a report that SFX Entertainment Inc., a concert promotional organization, also was interested in buying the Forum.

Obtaining the Forum would shut off competition for major concerts and give the Staples Center an alternate venue should scheduling conflicts arise at the downtown site, which will be home to the Lakers, Kings and Clippers--as well as the Democratic National Convention next summer.

The Sparks of the Women’s National Basketball Assn. and the Forum boxing shows are expected to remain at the Inglewood site.

Jack Kent Cooke, then the owner of the Lakers, built the Forum more than three decades ago, abandoning the metropolitan area after a dispute with the Coliseum Commission over the use of the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

Built at a cost of $12.5 million, the Forum opened on Dec. 30, 1967. Buss purchased the Forum in 1979 along with the Lakers and the Kings for $67.5 million. Of that amount, the Forum alone was estimated at $33.5 million.

The Forum was the site of the basketball competition in the 1984 Olympics.