Hollywood Park May Be Nearing the Finish Line

Inglewood calls itself “the City of Champions.” But these days, there is little for sports fans to celebrate.

The owners of Hollywood Park announced Wednesday that they have found a buyer for the property, raising new questions about the future of the storied horse track where Cary Grant, Walt Disney and Bing Crosby once played the ponies.

Hollywood Park, like the rest of the horse racing industry, has been struggling in recent years with plummeting attendance. The new owner, Bay Meadows Land Co., which paid $260 million for the property, said it would try to turn around Hollywood Park’s sagging fortunes, but warned that the track would close if it could not.

The company said it would immediately begin discussing new development ideas for the site with city officials, who said Wednesday they expect the park to close within three years.

The precarious future of the track comes six years after Inglewood lost the Lakers and Kings to Staples Center. But for a city that has struggled in recent years to reduce crime and boost its economy, the prospect of losing Hollywood Park has been greeted with a mixture of sadness and hope.

Although Inglewood took great pride in being a center of professional sports, some are quick to point out that residents of the working-class city couldn’t afford to attend many of the events.

“The image was good, but the city did not benefit that much,” said Mayor Roosevelt Dorn. “The city fathers did not take advantage of the thousands of individuals coming into the city on a regular basis.... There were no sports bars or nightclubs or restaurants for people to stop by after the games.”

Hollywood Park occupies 238 acres of prime land in the center of the Los Angeles region, and officials are already taking about housing and commercial developments that could bring far more revenue to the city than the racetrack ever did.

Inglewood has already seen something of a revival since the city approved construction of a casino and shopping center on a portion of the Hollywood Park parking lot a few years ago. The casino, which sits on just a few acres of track site, now generates about $4.5 million in revenue annually for the city -- about $1 million more than Hollywood Park itself, said City Administrator Mark Weinberg.

Officials hope to lure development that would better serve residents of the predominantly black and Latino city 10 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.

“As the city evolves, we’ve got to be prepared to capitalize on every changing situation and we can’t get caught up in nostalgia,” said Assemblyman Jerome Horton (D-Inglewood).

The Forum, which housed the Lakers and Kings until 1999, is now owned by the Faithful Central Bible Church. Some residents praise the church for opening the venue for concerts and other events that draw more Inglewood residents.

But luring new development to Inglewood -- even with a large piece of open space -- could prove challenging. After the Lakers and Kings left, officials talked about adding shops and housing to the Forum site. But those plans fell through, and the city saw a sharp decline in the tax revenue it received from the venue.

The church now is proposing a 30-acre retail development on a portion of Forum land, but the plans have not been finalized and tenants for the shops have not been found.

Hollywood Park opened in 1938, and its name reflected its connection to Tinseltown. The park’s chairman was Jack L. Warner of Warner Bros., and shareholders included film stars and moguls such as Samuel Goldwyn, Ralph Bellamy and Walt Disney. During the racetrack’s heyday through the early 1980s, Hollywood personalities, including Fred Astaire, Telly Savalas and MGM titan Louis B. Mayer, famously sneaked over to Inglewood in the afternoons for races.

“Citation” became racing’s first million-dollar-earning horse in 1951 by winning the Hollywood Gold Cup. In 1984, Hollywood Park was host of the inaugural Breeders’ Cup, drawing a crowd of 64,625 and an estimated 50 million television viewers.

But with the rise of online and other off-track betting, competition from Indian casinos and diminished interest in the sport, horse racing has been in decline for years.

Hollywood Park has played host to a Samoan church’s bingo events during dormant months, but few big-ticket events.

“The track’s heyday is long since gone,” said Inglewood Councilman Curren Price. “We’ll miss the horse racing, but we’re confident there’s bigger things ahead. It’s time for new uses, and that land is more valuable as a development project than as a horse racing venue at this time.”

“Horse racing just isn’t the sport of kings any longer,” said Paul Russell, a political activist who has lived in Inglewood for 29 years, “I don’t know anybody in my circle of friends who goes to the racetrack.”

Hollywood Park’s closure would mark a turning point in a city that has experienced major changes in the last four decades. The city was a middle-class, predominantly white suburb of Los Angeles until the late 1960s, when it saw a major influx of black residents.

The city still has a strong middle class, but has also been plagued by gang violence -- a fact that has become part of Southern California consciousness. The 1991 film “Grand Canyon” dealt with the story of a white attorney who is stopped by gang thugs while driving home from a Laker game. (Residents and city officials loudly protested the portrayal of their community to the movie’s producers.)

Today, Latinos and blacks each make up about 46% of the city’s population of 112,000. Inglewood’s median household income, according to the 2000 census, was $34,300, compared with the countywide income of $42,200. Although crime overall is down, pockets of the city are still hit hard by violence and gang activity. Two months ago, a popular pastor was slain while walking outside his church.

Hollywood Park’s current owner, Churchill Downs Inc., said it decided to sell after failing to draw more visitors in the face of Indian casinos and off-track betting.

“It would appear to us that the state has forsaken racing,” said Thomas H. Meeker, Churchill Downs’ president and chief executive.

Bay Meadows President Terry Fancher said his company, which operates the Bay Meadows racetrack in San Mateo, Calif., would try to reinvigorate the sport.

But he said the Hollywood Park track would not be economically viable unless it could offer other forms of gambling such as slot machines. The horse racing industry last year backed a ballot measure that would allow slots at tracks as a way of competing with Indian casinos, but voters rejected the proposal.

“We have no desire to shut this track down if we don’t need to,” he said.

Still, Fancher said the company would begin immediately exploring “alternative land use entitlements” for the racetrack if the racing industry were unable to recover.

Fancher said he had no specifics on Bay Meadows’ development plans for the property.

The 238 acres would be one of the largest pieces of urban infill land to come on the market in years, said Bill Rattazzi, division president of John Laing Homes.

Laing is one of several developers building homes in the city, and some officials would like to see more single-family houses on the track site.

Officials say renters now outnumber homeowners nearly 2 to 1, so adding more homes for sale might help bring stability to the community.

The city also would like to see retail on portions of the land, including restaurants, movie theaters and chain stores.

“That area will be the centerpiece of Inglewood’s future,” Rattazzi said.

But though many in the city see Hollywood Park’s problems as an opportunity, the possible loss of such a landmark has brought sadness as well.

“We’re not a professional sports city anymore,” said Russell, the community activist. “The ‘City of Champions’ became the ‘city of champions leaving to Los Angeles.’ ”

Councilman Price disagreed.

“I think Inglewood is the City of Champions because its residents are hardworking people who want the best environment for their families and children,” he said. “I think the residents are the champions.”

Times staff writer Annette Haddad contributed to this report.

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Changes in Inglewood

A new owner for Hollywood Park brings uncertainty about its long-term future. It sits on 240 highly accessible acres, and officials are already talking about developments that could replace it.

Population: 112,482

Black: 46.4%

Latino: 46%

White: 4%

Other: 3.6%

Median household income: $34,269

Population below poverty level: 22.5%

Sources: 2000 census, ESRI, TeleAtlas

Los Angeles Times