Big moves that Clippers ownership have focused on for a while now have taken a major step forward. Here’s the OC Register:
The owners of the Los Angeles Clippers will buy The Forum concert venue in Inglewood for $400 million as part of a settlement agreement with Madison Square Garden Co..
The agreement ends years of legal battles that threatened the feasibility of a proposed $1.2 billion Clippers arena in the city that soon will be home to an adjacent $5 billion NFL stadium for the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers. That 18,000-seat arena just south of the new NFL stadium will still move forward.
Here is info straight from the Clippers:
CAPSS LLC has reached an agreement with The Madison Square Garden Company (NYSE: MSG) to purchase The Forum in Inglewood, which will continue to operate as one of the premier live-music venues in the United States. The formation of CAPSS LLC and the acquisition of the Forum were driven by L.A. Clippers Chairman Steve Ballmer and L.A. Clippers Vice Chairman Dennis Wong.
By reaching an agreement with MSG, CAPSS LLC will acquire the Inglewood venue, simultaneously resolving litigation surrounding plans for the new NBA arena. As part of the agreement, all of MSG’s current Forum employees will be extended employment offers by the new owner.
This transaction, which remains subject to Hart-Scott-Rodino and other customary closing conditions, is expected to close during the second calendar quarter of 2020. CAPSS LLC is purchasing The Forum for $400 million in cash.
The new Clippers arena project would be a privately financed, state-of-the-art, 18,000-seat basketball arena, team headquarters complex and community center located on West Century Boulevard between South Prairie Avenue and South Yukon Avenue. The project is currently undergoing an environmental review by the City of Inglewood. Public hearings to approve the project are expected to be held later this summer.
“This is an unprecedented time, but we believe in our collective future,” said Ballmer. “We are committed to our investment in the City of Inglewood, which will be good for the community, the Clippers, and our fans.”
Having The Forum and the new Clippers arena under the same ownership will allow for coordinated programming between the two venues, improving traffic congestion around basketball games and concerts.
More from the Register:
Madison Square Garden Co., which bought The Forum for $23.5 million in 2012 and invested $100 million in renovations, has waged an all-out war to try to stop the Clippers from coming to the city. MSG sued Inglewood and its mayor, James T. Butts Jr., in 2018, alleging he tricked the company’s executives into giving up their rights to the land needed for the proposed arena.
The Forum’s owners claimed their fight was not about stopping the competition and instead was an attempt to protect Inglewood residents from a project that would “inflict severe traffic congestion, pollution and many other harms” on the city.
And, the Los Angeles Times reporting:
The deal is expected to close during the 2020 second quarter. The new ownership group has no plans to tear down the Forum, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2014, and will keep it operating as a concert venue…
The Clippers’ billion-dollar arena would sit less than two miles away from the Forum on West Century Boulevard, and be part of a larger Inglewood Basketball and Entertainment Complex that would house team offices, a practice facility and public outdoor spaces.
