Clippers to announce new arena in Inglewood

[DG_ThenNowForever]

It will be weird when the Clippers have a nicer arena than the Lakers.

[FlyEaglesFly76]

11 hours ago, dfwabel said:

No sympathy here.

 

 

[Lee Noire]

Good news for us Clipper fans. We get a place to call our own, and if he still has his mojo, adding Jerry West can only be a good thing.

 

There's never been a better time to be a fan than these last 5-6 years, but this feels better somehow. Ballmer is insane, but moves like this show he's here to get ish done. Especially while the Lakers are down.

[MadmanLA]

28 minutes ago, Lee Noire said:

Good news for us Clipper fans. We get a place to call our own, and if he still has his mojo, adding Jerry West can only be a good thing.

 

There's never been a better time to be a fan than these last 5-6 years, but this feels better somehow. Ballmer is insane, but moves like this show he's here to get ish done. Especially while the Lakers are down.

 

Ditto...as a little disclaimer, I used to live right near where the new arena is planning to be built, and currently live just a couple miles away from the site.  It's not much over there in that part of Inglewood, except a couple of shopping centers, a couple of seedy motels, and an UPS warehouse along that stretch of Century Boulevard, between Yukon and Prairie Avenues.  South and west of that are largely residential homes and apartments...people who rent were already going to be priced out with Kroenkeville going up, and even moreso when the new Clip Joint opens for business.

 

This is maybe far-fetched and unlikely, but I wonder if the Ducks are paying attention to this announcement.  The Pond will be 30 years old in 2023, which is when the new Clipper arena is expected to open.  Since the G-League team is parked in Ontario for the foreseeable future, and potential other events at both the Forum and the football stadium, the Clips can't just fill 41+ dates on their own.  Then again, Ballmer can construct the building to make it basketball-centric (like Barclays, Charlotte, Memphis, and Indy, for example).

[kroywen]

13 minutes ago, MadmanLA said:

 

Ditto...as a little disclaimer, I used to live right near where the new arena is planning to be built, and currently live just a couple miles away from the site.  It's not much over there in that part of Inglewood, except a couple of shopping centers, a couple of seedy motels, and an UPS warehouse along that stretch of Century Boulevard, between Yukon and Prairie Avenues.  South and west of that are largely residential homes and apartments...people who rent were already going to be priced out with Kroenkeville going up, and even moreso when the new Clip Joint opens for business.

 

This is maybe far-fetched and unlikely, but I wonder if the Ducks are paying attention to this announcement.  The Pond will be 30 years old in 2023, which is when the new Clipper arena is expected to open.  Since the G-League team is parked in Ontario for the foreseeable future, and potential other events at both the Forum and the football stadium, the Clips can't just fill 41+ dates on their own.  Then again, Ballmer can construct the building to make it basketball-centric (like Barclays, Charlotte, Memphis, and Indy, for example).

 

Guessing this is exactly what will happen. I'd guess, going forward, that nearly every new NBA arena built without an NHL co-tenant will be a basketball-only arena. They've proven very popular among basketball fans. Unless the Ducks sign on very early in the planning process, I'm sure this will be a basketball-only arena.

 

I can't see the Ducks wanting to move from an arena they control into being the Clippers' tenant. I don't know what cut of revenue the Ducks get from non-hockey events and from parking, concessions, etc. (I'd guess it's very high, if not 100%, given that the Ducks control the arena management company), but I'd imagine they'd want a significant stake in those things in Inglewood if they were to move. At that point, it also becomes a question of whether Ballmer would be willing to give the Ducks said stake to make a move profitable and worthwhile.

 

In any event, given that pitfalls of transitioning from basketball-only to multi-purpose, I wouldn't expect to see any Pistons-esque announcements by the Ducks after construction starts. I know the Islanders did it, but the Ducks wouldn't be leaving a decrepit Nassau Coliseum.

[Lee Noire]

Yeah that's the sad part. The gentrification is real. Being from LA I do appreciate that Inglewood is getting a face lift, but I'd hate to see my aunt get pushed out as a result. She loves her home.

 

I think Basketball centric is the way to go because with forum and the Rams complex entertainment will be covered. Unless, an artist or event require a smaller venue, which Barclays has been good for.

[Still MIGHTY]

The Ducks will never move to Inglewood. That'd kind of kill their whole point of existing. They aren't and have never tried to be LA's 2nd team. They're Orange County's team.

 

Plus, they've actually done a pretty good job keeping the Pond up to date. The Samuelis have invested a lot of money over time - LED rings, endzone screens, new jumbotron, extension on the front of the building with a bigger team store, restaurant, portico area, giant screens on the front of the extension, more HDTVs and other screens around all the concourses, new food options and design elements around the concourses. And as kroywen pointed out, they most of if not 100% of revenues from all the other events that roll through (which is a lot) which they can pocket and, as I just evidenced, put back into the arena/team.

 

Basically, no. The Ducks won't be looking for a new arena anytime soon, especially as a tenant. Even in 2023. The Pond will probably have a pretty long lifespan, actually.

 

But as kroywen and MadmanLA both alluded to, I'd say Ballmer makes the Inglewood basketball-centric. Try to give it a different vibe and experience than a Lakers game at Staples.

[MadmanLA]

Nathan Fenno from the L.A. Times posted this pic on his Twitter; it's the location in question:

Kroenkeville is to the north of Century, east of Yukon is a shopping center, and at the southeast corner of 104th Street/Yukon is Morningside High School.  Everything else I mentioned earlier are single-family houses and apartments, or abandoned buildings (particular along 102nd Street).

 

Edit:  Apparently, Jim Dolan and his buddies aren't too happy about the Clippers setting-up a mile down the street, and enlisted lawyers to go after the city of Inglewood.  Again from Mr. Fenno:

 

Doesn't Dolan have his own arena problems, like where the Rangers and Knicks are gonna play when the city finally evicts them from Penn Station in a few years?

[Wings]

Dolan is an asshat and has completely ruined New York basketball along with the Russian in Brooklyn. 

[kroywen]

47 minutes ago, MadmanLA said:

Edit:  Apparently, Jim Dolan and his buddies aren't too happy about the Clippers setting-up a mile down the street, and enlisted lawyers to go after the city of Inglewood.  Again from Mr. Fenno:

 

Doesn't Dolan have his own arena problems, like where the Rangers and Knicks are gonna play when the city finally evicts them from Penn Station in a few years?

 

I figured MSG would be livid about these plans, given how much money they poured into renovating the Forum as a music venue. Not sure how much legal recourse he has though.

 

I'd be curious whether arena operators ever get a clause in their contract with a municipality that the municipality won't permit any competing venues of a certain size range to be constructed within city (or county) limits. Never heard of such a thing, though.

 

I will say this - the Forum may still be a viable music venue, since it is specifically designed and operated as a music venue. Older arenas and purpose-built (or renovated) music venues tend to have much better acoustics than modern arenas, and their seating is more compact and close to the stage (no luxury suites). Likewise, their rent tends to be lower. I remember Springsteen famously preferred to play the LA Sports Arena rather than the Staples Center since he preferred the acoustics there (I'm sure the much lower rent and better date availability helped as well). So the Forum would have those advantages over any new Clippers arena. It'd put a dent into the Forum's business, no question, but the Forum would probably still be a profitable venue.

[MadmanLA]

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-inglewood-clippers-vote-20170615-story.html

 

In the Times article above, the lawyers representing MSG are basically stating that there is indeed some violation with their agreement with Inglewood that were never given prior notice about the Clippers' plans.  MSG/Forum can reserve the right to challenge the agreement between Inglewood and the Clippers.  This whole thing doesn't surprise me either.  I saw another story saying the Clippers and MSG talked about building in one of the corners of the Forum's parking lot, before talks fell apart.  There was a similar plan back in the mid-to-late 90s about building a new Lakers/Kings arena over what's now Pincay Drive, that would have been adjacent to a planned Raiders-Hollywood Park stadium.  I think that all changed once AEG bought the Kings, and pushed for a Downtown L.A. arena, and at the same time the Raiders went back to Oakland.

 

Speaking of the Sports Arena, or at least the old site, I rode past there this afternoon...the new soccer stadium is coming along nicely.  I wish I taken had a picture, but the east stands look like they're about halfway done, and then working around to the north end.  It looks the like the south end will be more open-ended, looking out towards King Boulevard.  It was just a year ago this month that they demolished the Sports Arena.

[The_Admiral]

6 hours ago, kroywen said:

I remember Springsteen famously preferred to play the LA Sports Arena

the dump that jumps!

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

Nice. I prefer when teams have their own venues. Gives more of a 'territorial' aspect to it all. 

[Rockstar Matt]

I'm completely okay with this. It'll be good for the Clippers to finally have a place of their own. 

[LMU]

On 6/15/2017 at 7:59 AM, DG_Now said:

It will be weird when the Clippers have a nicer arena than the Lakers.

Trust me, AEG would rather throw another hundred mil at renovations than to have their flag carrying arena one-upped in its own market.

[The Six]

The Clippers' new arena will definitely be leagues ahead of Staples Center even with renovations. The problem is it will be in Inglewood, which is a veritable cesspool. We'll see if the supposed revitalization has any merit.

[TBGKon]

How close is this proposed Clippers arena to the new Rams/Chargers stadium complex?

[Still MIGHTY]

2 minutes ago, AstroBull21 said:

How close is this proposed Clippers arena to the new Rams/Chargers stadium complex?

 

Literally across the street

[Sykotyk]

6 hours ago, Still MIGHTY said:

 

Literally across the street

You know that the NFL is already salivating at the Super Bowl at the Rams stadium, but to throw in a state-of-the-art arena across the street, the media center at the big stadium, etc. Super Bowl week will be unreal.

[MadmanLA]

27 minutes ago, Sykotyk said:

You know that the NFL is already salivating at the Super Bowl at the Rams stadium, but to throw in a state-of-the-art arena across the street, the media center at the big stadium, etc. Super Bowl week will be unreal.

 

And it'll be another way that the NFL sticks it to MSG.