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Clippers Might Relocate... To Inglewood (UPDATE: And A New Logo To Go With It)

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Re: Clippers Might Relocate... To Inglewood 

Post#161 » by Clemenza » Fri May 3, 2019 3:45 am

Akklaim1 wrote:So Key Arena's renovations should be completed by 2021. Should we be worried? The years of strugggle to get the Inglewood deal done and the completion of KeyArena's makeover in a couple of years may be just a coincidence but it has to mean more than that in the future.

Owning a team is a great accomplishment in itself but I feel that owning a team in a major market like NY, LA, Chicago, etc really really means something special. It opens up doors, new business opportunities, international contacts, Hollywood and the entertainment field, etc. The city is booming on every level, a major metropolis, 18 million plus people to advertise to, the Olympics are coming, more trains/subways, etc. They've sewed up the Seattle area with Microsoft.. the Clippers is Ballmer's new "LA card". Yes anything is possible but forget the team value, I wouldn't move the Clippers simply off the other business, partnerships, connections I could acquire by being in LA.

The city is booming and finally growing up and becoming what its supposed to be- the 2nd largest market in arguably the most powerful nation on earth. Stan Kronke is from Missouri and didn't give two sh*ts and yanked the Rams out of his home state and brought here to LA. Hell even Angels owner Arte Moreno wants to get closer to the city's hub instead of being way out in the sticks. Put it this way, even if Ballmer were to leave the NBA would get another team here with a quickness. LA is a NBA stronghold, center, and moneymaker for the league. It will never be a Lakers only town. We could easily support a third team just like I'm sure NY could support a third baseball team. Remember the Kings were kicking the tires on a move to Anaheim before getting a deal in place for a new arena.
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Butts Continues to Show Himself as A-Hole 

Post#162 » by Ranma » Sat May 4, 2019 6:20 pm

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Angel Jennings, Los Angeles Times (11/7/18)
When Inglewood voters marched to the polls, they were not just casting their ballots for the mayor but for two different visions for the city’s future.

Butts wants to continue his plan of making Inglewood a sports and entertainment destination by building a new arena for the Clippers. The team’s owner, Steve Ballmer, donated more than $350,000 to a committee supporting Butts’ mayoral bid.

Little, backed by Madison Square Garden Co. — which owns the competing venue the Forum — did not support the arena plan. MSG poured more than $600,000 into Little’s campaign. The total is higher if counting the dozens of contributions of $900 or more from those in the entertainment business with some association to MSG, including reality TV star Kris Jenner.

Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Elected to Third Term
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Re: Clippers Might Relocate... To Inglewood 

Post#163 » by Cactus Jack » Mon May 6, 2019 5:31 pm

Wammy Giveaway wrote:Their endgame is to convince Ballmer that the Clippers have no home in Los Angeles, forcing him to relocate his franchise to Seattle. But, if they do, Clay Bennett will demand that the Clipper franchise be contracted completely and replaced by the Supersonics, past history and all. Other concessions include surrendering all accomplishments from the Blake Griffin era to the present to the Sonics. They want to convince the NBA that anything Clippers should be strictly Sterling - the worst franchise in all of sports, and that the world would be better off if the Clippers never existed. Effectively, Bennett will attempt to blame the Clippers for Seattle losing its team to Oklahoma City, giving him the perfect scapegoat.

Sorry, but whattttt!????? This is one of the most off the wall theories I've seen.... :lol:

Please do explain! :wink:
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Re: Clearly Unfounded Speculation 

Post#164 » by Cactus Jack » Mon May 6, 2019 6:03 pm

Ranma wrote:Futhermore, how come Seattle still has difficulty building a basketball stadium while Ballmer is committed to building a basketball-only stadium in Los Angeles? You would think Ballmer would be able to find suitable property in Seattle much easier than having to deal with the shenanigans in Inglewood locking horns with MSGC and Jeanie Buss, but that just seems way obvious to me.

As someone who lives & has followed the workings (Arena politics) in Seattle, I can tell you that much like L.A., it has been a long & tedious process (Much longer). Just to give a little background, Ballmer does actually still own land (property) in Seattle which was & still is intended for the purpose of building an Arena (For basketball). He remains a partner with Chris Hansen (Seattle guy who tried to buy/move the Kings) & the two of them still have/own property together. The holdup has been the city of Seattle.

In 2016, Hansen/Ballmer wanted (Needed) a street vacation to move forward with the Arena (Should a team be made available), but couldn't get final approval from the City (Close 5-4 vote). The Port of Seattle (Which wanted that land for itself & still does) lobbied against it heavily. So, it failed. It pretty much put an end to their arena hopes.

Shortly thereafter, Tim Leiweke (OVG Arena developer) came forward with a proposal to completely renovate Key Arena (Seattle Center). The project was green-lighted thanks to a promise of an NHL Expansion team (2021). It's being completely privately financed by Leiweke's company. The Arena fwiw is being built for both Hockey & Basketball.




FYI, MSG (James Dolan) is also a partner with Leiweke on the arena in Seattle.


Edit: Just to add, Hansen is still actively pursuing the project. A meeting is even planned for next week in Seattle in regards to the Arena.


Report: SoDo arena group, NAACP rumored to be meeting in May

The group is rumored to be working with Hansen to aid in the sale of part of Occidental Avenue, the street Hansen’s group needs to build its proposed arena.

Seattle City Council had originally decided not to sell that portion of Occidental to Hansen in a narrow 5-4 vote, almost three years ago.

According to the Times, the NAACP is now arranging this May 13 meeting to continue pushing for the sale on behalf of Hansen’s investment group.

https://mynorthwest.com/1370737/report-sodo-arena-group-naacp-rumored-to-be-meeting-in-may/
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Stop Worrying About Nonsense 

Post#165 » by Ranma » Thu May 9, 2019 4:20 am

Akklaim1 wrote:So Key Arena's renovations should be completed by 2021. Should we be worried? The years of strugggle to get the Inglewood deal done and the completion of KeyArena's makeover in a couple of years may be just a coincidence but it has to mean more than that in the future.

Clemenza wrote:Owning a team is a great accomplishment in itself but I feel that owning a team in a major market like NY, LA, Chicago, etc really really means something special. It opens up doors, new business opportunities, international contacts, Hollywood and the entertainment field, etc.


At the risk of further feeding this absurdity, I'm going to add my two cents and probably futilely try to put to rest these talks of the Clippers moving to Seattle. Clemenza is absolutely right. Owning a major professional sports franchise in Los Angeles is not just financially advantageous, but it also affords a sought-after status symbol even among the rich and famous much like owning a team in New York. How many such franchises are available? People only pay James Dolan any attention because he owns the Knicks. Donald Sterling knew that even with his dementia, which is why he didn't even want to sell the team. As was pointed out, the Angels in Anaheim are trying to sell themselves as a Los Angeles MLB team. The Raiders and Chargers both wanted to move to L.A. with only the Chargers being granted the privilege. And we're supposed to take these talks of the Clippers moving to Seattle seriously?

Only the most myopic of Sonics and Lakers fan believe that there is any real chance of the Clippers moving just because it doesn't make any sense at any level at all. You'd have to believe that Ballmer would be deadset on moving back to Seattle no matter what and, even if he wanted to do so, he could just wait until an expansion team is awarded in Seattle and then swap teams for a sizable profit rather than just move to a place that still doesn't have suitable basketball facilities and lose at least a billion dollars in asset value on top of that.

While it's interesting that the NAACP is helping in the campaign to bring a second arena to Seattle in the article Cactus Jack cited, it still paints a picture that an arena is not yet ready and that NBA basketball is still a ways from returning to Seattle. Period. Yeah, Kevin Durant is pushing for the Supersonics to return to Seattle, but think about, how old will he be when they finally do given that he's already 30 years old? The highly speculative story cited in the tweet above (since deleted) is from the New York Post, which is barely a step up from the National Enquirer.

The Clippers are now a destination franchise in free agency in large part because we're in Los Angeles. Do you think we'd have the same pull in Seattle? Even if the Clippers were to move for whatever reason, Jerry West wouldn't join them since he signed with the Clips, also in significant part, to be closer to home. Do you think Michael Winger and Trent Redden would still turn down offers to join other teams if the Clips had moved and forgoed their benefits in attracting free agents and whatever else? Like I've said, Ballmer would be better off selling the Clippers and buying the awarded expansion team and pocketing the profit instead of outright moving because he'd significantly lose out not only in team valuation from a monetary standpoint but from a cachet perspective.

Why worry about such nonsense when the Clippers benefit even just from staying in the Staples Center? I'll go to the "anything can happen" card once again but so could monkeys flying out of Wayne Campbell's butt.

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Edit: I previously included a tweet referencing the aforementioned "story" of the Clippers moving to Seattle somehow appealing more to Durant. The tweet has since been deleted apparently because people objected to how stupid it was. Count one up for social media this time. Like I said, this whole notion is ridiculous to even waste time thinking about.
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Re: Clippers Might Relocate... To Inglewood 

Post#166 » by wco81 » Thu May 9, 2019 1:37 pm

Clippers are in a huge market but just curious if their local TV deal is anything like what the Lakers have.

Can the market support two mega TV deals for two NBA teams?

Or would the franchise have a chance to get a better deal in a smaller market, but where it would be the only NBA team?
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Re: Clippers Might Relocate... To Inglewood 

Post#167 » by WC NBA Fan » Thu May 23, 2019 2:46 pm

wco81 wrote:Clippers are in a huge market but just curious if their local TV deal is anything like what the Lakers have.

Can the market support two mega TV deals for two NBA teams?

Or would the franchise have a chance to get a better deal in a smaller market, but where it would be the only NBA team?


That's a question I always pondered, meaning would the Clippers get a better deal in a smaller market as the only NBA team as opposed to sharing LA with the Lakers. The answer is pretty much no. The deal that Ballmer negotiated, even though it's roughly only a 3rd of what the Lakers get, is still more than what he could get in Seattle or any other market that currently doesn't have an NBA team so there is a lot of truth behind being better off in LA than in Seattle.
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Re: Clippers Might Relocate... To Inglewood 

Post#168 » by WC NBA Fan » Thu May 23, 2019 2:58 pm

simon24 wrote:I wonder why it's taking so many years to get an arena. 5 years is a long time.


When you consider everything he's had to do since he's bought the team, it actually isn't as long as one might think.

Keep in mind that he bought the team in 2014. The Staples lease runs til 2024. Knowing that, he could put the arena on the back burner since he had other franchise commitments to take care of at first.

He started with the new logo & uniforms.

Then came dealing with the new tv deal. Remember that he based his $2 billion off what he could get from a new tv contract. FWIW, he also came up with the new mascot as well.

In 2016, he started studying sites for a new arena and by the summer of 2017, he settled on the Inglewood site. Knowing that the EIR, which will be done by this August, plus lawsuits from MSG and whoever else have to be settled by the time he breaks ground, you get a good idea of why the whole process took this long.
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Re: Battle on Another Front 

Post#169 » by WC NBA Fan » Thu May 23, 2019 3:04 pm

Ranma wrote:I actually agree with the Uplift Inglewood Coalition's stated position. Hopefully, there is not an ulterior motive or an alignment with the Madison Square Garden Company. Obviously, this ruling helps MSGC's cause but their own lawsuit seems like a frivolous attempt to delay an inevitable action.


Here's what I don't get though. The FAA has already ruled that the land where Ballmer's project sits, is unsuitable for affordable housing or any housing for that matter due to it being in the LAX flight path. It's on the clippersarenainglewood.com FAQ. Therefore, what's the point of the lawsuit if they ultimately find that even if they should've studied whether it would be a good place for affordable housing before having it for the arena, that it's not suitable for housing?

Sounds like a big waste of legal fees and time unless you can prove that the FAA never stated that housing can't be built there and that Butts and the city of Inglewood is lying.
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Re: Clippers Might Relocate... To Inglewood 

Post#170 » by WC NBA Fan » Thu May 23, 2019 3:16 pm

Roscoe Sheed wrote:I think everything is speculative at this point. IF the arena in Inglewood falls through, Ballmer could explore other options in LA.

Ballmer has said repeatedly he won’t move the team and the league might not let him move even if he wanted to. Nobody has any solid evidence/sources indicating he wants to move the team to Seattle.

If any team were to move to Seattle, I’d expect a team that struggles financially like Memphis or New Orleans. It seems like nobody cares about basketball in Louisiana, so I think the pelicans should move there


I'll touch on both of those. While I am starting a new thread today based on an interesting public transportation development in Inglewood, I also read the emails during the discovery process that made Jeannie Buss look like a back stabber towards Ballmer, where she called him "Ballz" & showed how she had motives to move to Inglewood before Ballmer. One thing I found interesting was that one of the sites that Ballmer studied before settling on Inglewood was the current site of the Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw mall at Crenshaw and MLK. I like that site for 3 reasons.

The new LAX/Crenshaw light rail goes right there for those of us who don't want to pay exorbitant parking fees.

For those of us who do want to park, there is plenty of parking plus plenty of opportunity to expand on current parking and building new structures.

Lastly, it's far enough from both Staples and the Forum that neither of those 2 entities can claim that Ballmer would be encroaching on their "territory". It's practically smack dab between both of them.

As for other markets that should go to Seattle, you are spot on. Memphis and New Orleans are the two markets that get talked about when the topic comes up regarding relocation to Seattle. I give the edge to Memphis moving being that they can A) get out of their lease earlier and B) they don't have local ownership. Gayle Benson is a lifelong New Orleanian who seems committed to the market, at least for the time being.
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Public or Private Documents? 

Post#171 » by Ranma » Thu May 23, 2019 7:36 pm

WC NBA Fan wrote:While I am starting a new thread today based on an interesting public transportation development in Inglewood, I also read the emails during the discovery process that made Jeannie Buss look like a back stabber towards Ballmer, where she called him "Ballz" & showed how she had motives to move to Inglewood before Ballmer.


Thanks for the info, WC. This insight into the ongoing development is much appreciated. While I believe you about the emails, are you able to cite and link or post a screenshot/scan of the specific passage of text regarding the alternative sites for the Clippers stadium project? Basically, are the emails in the public domain or are they still private under judicial protection or privilege?

Not only would it satisfy my own personal curiosity, but I think it would go a long way towards squashing the rumors and concerns of the Clippers moving to Seattle as unfounded and nonsensical as that notion already is.
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Re: Public or Private Documents? 

Post#172 » by WC NBA Fan » Thu May 23, 2019 8:17 pm

Ranma wrote:
WC NBA Fan wrote:While I am starting a new thread today based on an interesting public transportation development in Inglewood, I also read the emails during the discovery process that made Jeannie Buss look like a back stabber towards Ballmer, where she called him "Ballz" & showed how she had motives to move to Inglewood before Ballmer.


Thanks for the info, WC. This insight into the ongoing development is much appreciated. While I believe you about the emails, are you able to cite and link or post a screenshot/scan of the specific passage of text regarding the alternative sites for the Clippers stadium project? Basically, are the emails in the public domain or are they still private under judicial protection or privilege?

Not only would it satisfy my own personal curiosity, but I think it would go a long way towards squashing the rumors and concerns of the Clippers moving to Seattle as unfounded and nonsensical as that notion already is.


Let me do some googling. Nathan Fenno wrote an article in the LA times regarding the discovery phase of one of the lawsuit's against Ballmer. I'm not sure if the emails are for public consumption although I read them in the article so it was at least made available to the media. I'll keep you updated.
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Re: Clippers Might Relocate... To Inglewood 

Post#173 » by WC NBA Fan » Thu May 23, 2019 8:21 pm

Here are 3 articles. The top one is the most informative and is the Fenno article that I brought up. While some of the emails are heavily redacted, you can get the gist of the back and forth. What I found ironic is that in the discovery phase of a lawsuit against Ballmer, it was actually Jeanie who was made out to look like a fool.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-lakers-forum-move-20190314-story.html

https://nypost.com/2019/03/14/jeanie-buss-calls-steve-ballmer-ballz-in-bizarre-email-exchange-with-msg-exec/

https://nba.nbcsports.com/2019/03/14/lakers-owner-jeanie-buss-on-clippers-owner-steve-ballmer-didnt-ballz-see-what-we-did-to-my-brother/
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Re: Clippers Might Relocate... To Inglewood 

Post#174 » by WC NBA Fan » Thu May 23, 2019 9:12 pm

Upon further review, that particular Times article that I just linked doesn't have the email exchanges between Ballmer, Dennis Wong & Gillian Zucker that detail the alternative sites. I'll have to keep digging. But what I do remember from the exchanges, they had a list of 3 possible sites. Inglewood, Carson & the Baldwin Hills mall were the 3. When discussing Carson, Ballmer wrote something along the lines of, "forget Carson, we'd be better off staying at Staples....."
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Re: Clippers Might Relocate... To Inglewood 

Post#175 » by WC NBA Fan » Thu May 23, 2019 9:15 pm

Found it. Here's the article with all the Ballmer email exchanges. It was actually "pass on Carson. We'd never go there. Staying at Staples would be better."

https://www.latimes.com/sports/clippers/la-sp-clippers-arena-emails-20190223-story.html
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Re: Clippers Might Relocate... To Inglewood 

Post#176 » by BillTheGOAT » Sat May 25, 2019 8:59 pm

What is the latest on the Inglewood arena plans?
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Re: Clippers Might Relocate... To Inglewood 

Post#177 » by WC NBA Fan » Sun May 26, 2019 1:04 am

BillTheGOAT wrote:What is the latest on the Inglewood arena plans?


Ballmer has staved off pretty much all the challenges so far although the lawsuit stating that the land should've been studied as a site for affordable housing before an arena, will be heard in front of a judge in September. I just don't think it has much of a chance being that the faa has already ruled that housing can't be built there given it's in the lax flight path.

Also, we should be seeing renderings within the month.
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Butts Violated State Law When He Rushed Approval of Clippers' Arena Project 

Post#178 » by Ranma » Thu May 30, 2019 12:34 am

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Nathan Fenno, Los Angeles Times (5/29/19)
The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office found that the Inglewood City Council violated state law in connection with a special meeting in June 2017 to approve an agreement with a Clippers-controlled company to explore building an arena in the city, but the D.A. declined to take any action.

In a two-page letter sent to council members earlier this month and obtained by the Los Angeles Times, Deputy Dist. Atty. Bjorn Dodd wrote that the meeting agenda violated the Brown Act, the state’s open meetings law, by not providing a sufficient description of the matter to be discussed.

“Violations relating to the agenda description of an item of business could render the action by the city council null and void,” the letter said. “However, because the complaint was received after the time limits to remedy the violation, no action will be taken at this time."

“Notably omitted from the agenda description was any information of the location and scope of the contemplated development project,” the letter said.

It added: “The public does not bear the burden to inspect related documents to glean the essential nature of what the city council will consider.”

Inglewood Meeting to Approve Clippers Deal Violated State Law, D.A. Says


Larry Altman, KCET.org (5/29/19)
In a letter to the Inglewood City Council earlier this month, District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s Public Integrity Unit concluded that a vague meeting agenda item description that included no information about the Clippers basketball team, the stadium or the negotiations “did violate the (Ralph M. Brown) Act.”

“It should be noted that the deficiency of the agenda description appears to have been part of concerted efforts between representatives of the city and the Murphy’s Bowl LLC to limit the notice given to the public,” Deputy District Attorney Bjorn Dodd wrote in the letter dated May 17. “The generic name of Murphy’s Bowl LLC was used intentionally to obfuscate the identity of the proposed project and those associated with it.”

In March 2018, SoCal Connected obtained and reported court documents released during a lawsuit filed against the city by Madison Square Garden Co., which owns the Forum, revealed how the arena was kept furtive.

DA Concludes Inglewood Violated Brown Act Over Public Disclosure of Clippers Arena
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Re: Butts Violated State Law When He Rushed Approval of Clippers' Arena Project 

Post#179 » by WC NBA Fan » Thu May 30, 2019 3:51 pm

Ranma wrote:“Violations relating to the agenda description of an item of business could render the action by the city council null and void,” the letter said. “However, because the complaint was received after the time limits to remedy the violation, no action will be taken at this time."


While it may seem a bit unethical, the Clippers also realize how tough it is to do anything in this state so you have to use every tactic in the book to get an edge. Plus, it's not their fault that the complaint was received after the time limits to remedy the violation. The plaintiffs should've acted sooner. The fact that they didn't tells me that this has a lot of BS to it. There are people out there who know Ballmer's worth and instead of trying to thwart the project for "ethical" reasons, they are looking for handouts and payoffs.
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Re: Butts Violated State Law When He Rushed Approval of Clippers' Arena Project 

Post#180 » by BillTheGOAT » Thu May 30, 2019 10:11 pm

WC NBA Fan wrote:
Ranma wrote:“Violations relating to the agenda description of an item of business could render the action by the city council null and void,” the letter said. “However, because the complaint was received after the time limits to remedy the violation, no action will be taken at this time."


While it may seem a bit unethical, the Clippers also realize how tough it is to do anything in this state so you have to use every tactic in the book to get an edge. Plus, it's not their fault that the complaint was received after the time limits to remedy the violation. The plaintiffs should've acted sooner. The fact that they didn't tells me that this has a lot of BS to it. There are people out there who know Ballmer's worth and instead of trying to thwart the project for "ethical" reasons, they are looking for handouts and payoffs.
I think this is basically a green light to move forward with the project, if not it's at least a yellow light. This will help distinguish the Clippers from the Lakers and increase the fan base.

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