Staples Center Renewal Close

Agreement on a long-term lease keeping the Clippers in Staples Center is imminent, the arena’s chief executive said Sunday.

“We would like the Clippers to stay and ... I think we’re going to work this out,” Tim Leiweke, president of Anschutz Entertainment Group, told radio station XTRA. “I think we’ll have something in the next week, at the very latest.

“And it will be a long-term deal.”

The Clippers were optimistic but declined to comment.

The Clippers were mildly miffed but generally amused when Leiweke suggested in a story published this month in the Los Angeles Downtown News that they might be jettisoned from the arena when their lease runs out after this season.

Leiweke was quoted as telling the newspaper, “We actually would make more money if, instead of 40 Clippers games, we had five concerts. So, those are some of the decisions we’re going to have to make. The Clippers’ issue is in negotiations now. Their lease is up after this year.

“And ironically, shockingly, we’ve got to make a decision as to whether we even want them back. We’re not sure.”

Leiweke had declined to expound on his comments, his spokesman Michael Roth saying only: “We continue to be in negotiations ... with the Clippers.”

The Clippers saw his comments as a negotiating ploy.

“Though I love the newspaper, I don’t believe you use the newspaper to negotiate,” Leiweke said Sunday. “And in fact, it was a quote in the Downtown News. I certainly wouldn’t have used that newspaper to negotiate.”

He denied threatening to render the Clippers homeless.

“I didn’t say evict,” he said. “What I said is that, obviously they had a decision, we had a decision. Their lease is up.”

The Clippers moved from the Sports Arena before the 1999-2000 season, signing a six-year lease with Staples Center, which opened five years ago this month.

At the same time, the Lakers and Kings signed 20-year leases with Staples Center.

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Corey Maggette scored 19 points Sunday night in the Clippers’ 97-93 exhibition victory over the New Orleans Hornets in front of 9,232 in Staples Center.... Rookie Shaun Livingston, looking more comfortable, made six of 11 shots and scored 14 points. “It’s coming,” he said. “Mainly it’s just effort.” ... If Kerry Kittles (knee) opens the season on the injured list, as the Clippers suspect he will, he would not be available until their sixth game, Nov. 12 against the Knicks at New York.