Ballmer buys The Forum from James Dolan in order to build his new arena

soxhop411

news aggravator
SoSH Member
Dec 4, 2009
46,274







Per Jovan Buha of the Athletic the complex will include an 18,500-seat arena, a corporate HQ building, the team training facility, a sports medicine clinic, community courts, park spaces, educ. facilities, restaurants & shops.


Via the LA times:
“When I bought the team I thought it was great we didn’t need to build an arena,” Ballmer told The Times. “But as we looked forward we were at some disadvantages in Staples Center.”

The Inglewood arena, he added, “is a way for us to define our own identity. … People, I think, will say, we play in the Lakers’ building. We’d like to play in the Clippers’ building. That’s what we’re working on.”

Ballmer lives in Seattle but called the arena project a long-term commitment to the Los Angeles market.
“We’re not moving,” Ballmer said of he and his wife, Connie, “and neither is our basketball team. Let’s get that out of the way.”

Project backers say the arena complex will be entirely privately financed, use no public money and will require no additional infrastructure surrounding the site to be paid for by the city. Renderings call for the finished site to hold three parking garages, a sports medicine clinic, spaces for parks and educational facilities, restaurants and businesses and an indoor court available to the community. Outside, a giant LED screen would create a viewing area similar to “Jurassic Park” outside Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena.


The site’s anchor is a 900,000-square-foot arena whose exterior would include solar panels and is designed to symbolize the diamond shapes in a basketball net.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/clippers/story/2019-07-25/clippers-arena-inglewood-renderings-steve-ballmer

From the clippers site.
The proposed arena will have a three-dimensional oval design with a unique exterior of diamond-shaped metal panels inspired by the concept of a basketball swishing through a net. In addition to attractive aesthetics, the panels have been designed to provide solar benefit for maximum energy efficiency, as part of the facility’s LEED GOLD-certified design.

The facility’s most striking feature, intended to highlight the temperate climate of Southern California, is the integration of indoor/outdoor “sky gardens.” These landscaped areas for food and beverage will be accessible from every concourse level. The complex also envisions a multi-purpose plaza complete with concert stage, community basketball courts and space for the community to gather and watch everything from Clippers Playoff games to movie premieres on a supersized LED screen.

The Clippers campus will achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions through a combination of carbon offset credits and sustainable design features.
https://www.nba.com/clippers/la-clippers-unveil-plans-new-arena-and-entertainment-center-inglewood

CC @ElUno20
 
Last edited:

Ale Xander

Hamilton
SoSH Member
Oct 31, 2013
72,428
Between this and the football stadium, Inglewood is about to be gentrified!

I hope The Truth is at the ribbon-cutting.
 

Gdiguy

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
6,231
San Diego, CA
Good for them & Ballmer - any privately financed sports stadium immediately gets my support. Sounds like this isn't even a "privately financed" (but we secretly get 500 million in parking structures / tax credits / etc) deal

Reminds me a lot of Singapore (Changi airport in particular), it would be great to get a little more of that style of construction in CA
 

Ale Xander

Hamilton
SoSH Member
Oct 31, 2013
72,428
Close to transit?
About a mile and three-quarters from Hawthorne/Lennox on the green line. Should be a bus route closer but I have no clue on that. I don't' think the residents of Manhattan and Redondo Beaches want it any closer to the green line.
99.5% of people with enough $ to buy those tickets in 2024, drive.
 

ElUno20

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 19, 2005
6,055
About to? This has been a crisis for long time Inglewood residents for a while now.
It's fucking brutal. And although i love my clipps, between this and the rams stadium, it's really forced out people in the community and it sucks. Im happy for those people who did own and have been able to gouge people moving in but that is a real few. Most people in that area rent they've just been fucked by higher and higher rent or just flat out displaced as developers have come in.

For perspective, there are probably 2 real (what outsiders would call) "rough" areas of Inglewood with this being one of them. It's like an episode of the twilight zone seeing that area change. I mean im happy, potentially I'd be like 15-20 minutes away to see a game but it just kinda sucks and feels wrong.
 

ElUno20

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 19, 2005
6,055
About a mile and three-quarters from Hawthorne/Lennox on the green line. Should be a bus route closer but I have no clue on that. I don't' think the residents of Manhattan and Redondo Beaches want it any closer to the green line.
99.5% of people with enough $ to buy those tickets in 2024, drive.
Transit? Dude it's LA county. We fucking drive. Everywhere. The 105/110/405 are very close though so it wont be an issue. Only brightside of this gentrification is they'll have to finally finally repaved and fix Century Blvd which is the worst fn street I've ever seen.
 

Ale Xander

Hamilton
SoSH Member
Oct 31, 2013
72,428
Transit? Dude it's LA. We fucking drive. Everywhere. The 105/110/405 are very close though so it wont be an issue. Only brightside of this gentrification is they'll have to finally finally repaved and fix Century Blvd which is the worst fn street I've ever seen.
I know, I was replying to Lose. But my sarcasm detector was off with his post.
 

djbayko

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 18, 2005
25,894
Los Angeles, CA
Transit? Dude it's LA county. We fucking drive. Everywhere. The 105/110/405 are very close though so it wont be an issue. Only brightside of this gentrification is they'll have to finally finally repaved and fix Century Blvd which is the worst fn street I've ever seen.
Seeing “405” and “won’t be an issue” in the same sentence is funny.
 

benhogan

Granite Truther
SoSH Member
Nov 2, 2007
20,111
Santa Monica
Seeing “405” and “won’t be an issue” in the same sentence is funny.
Ugh, rarely play around with traffic in LA. BUT decided to take my son and his friend to In n Out at 4pm on a Friday after the beach.

PCH to the 10 to the 405 (Westwood). 6 miles in 75 minutes...9yr old boys farting the entire way:eek:

No good deed goes unpunished
 

Devizier

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 3, 2000
19,461
Somewhere
Transit? Dude it's LA county. We fucking drive. Everywhere. The 105/110/405 are very close though so it wont be an issue. Only brightside of this gentrification is they'll have to finally finally repaved and fix Century Blvd which is the worst fn street I've ever seen.
I’ve taken the rail to Long Beach. It’s not bad. But the coverage, well...
 

ElUno20

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 19, 2005
6,055
Seeing “405” and “won’t be an issue” in the same sentence is funny.
In terms of access to a freeway. It's literally a straight shot down century, maybe a 5 minutes, from this and the rams stadium.

Now once you get on, that's a different story.
 

ElUno20

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 19, 2005
6,055
Ugh, rarely play around with traffic in LA. BUT decided to take my son and his friend to In n Out at 4pm on a Friday after the beach.

PCH to the 10 to the 405 (Westwood). 6 miles in 75 minutes...9yr old boys farting the entire way:eek:

No good deed goes unpunished
Anything Westwood doesn't count. Im poor but still vow the next time i go there, I'm requiring a helicopter drop off.
 

TripleOT

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 4, 2007
7,758
Any report on the budget for this project? Ballmer can probably pay for it without even blinking, but it's great that he didn't hold local taxpayers hostage and just decided to pay for it himself (and/or borrow the money to pay for it himself). I hope this guy wins a title some day, as long as it's not against the Celtics.
 

Philip Jeff Frye

Member
SoSH Member
Oct 23, 2001
10,229
MSG/Dolan Sued to block the building of the clippers arena. So what does Ballmer do? Buys the forum!
I'm in LA for some business meetings today. As I drive around, the local all-news radio station was reporting on this. According to the report, MSG's lawsuit contended that the new arena would provide competition for the Forum. Well, duh!

Still awaiting an explanation of why that would somehow be wrong...
 

TripleOT

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 4, 2007
7,758
So Dolan/MSG is into the Forum for around $75M, $23.5 million to buy in 2012, and $50 million to renovate. Nice profit of $325 million in eight years. Too bad Dolan's business acumen doesn't translate to putting together a good basketball team.
 

InstaFace

The Ultimate One
SoSH Member
Sep 27, 2016
21,753
Pittsburgh, PA
yeah it kinda makes me mad that Ballmer didn't just litigate him into oblivion on general principle. It takes a lot to make me root for a deca-billionaire, but damn if James Dolan can't pull it off.
 

ElUno20

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 19, 2005
6,055
It was my understanding The Forum has been morphed into a high end concert only venue.
Not really high end. Just renovated a few years back and was basically a must stop for any act coming through "LA". (Definitely better sound than the shitty staples center).

I love all the money and work balmer is doing for Inglewood and the school district but the site of Clipps proposed stadium is/was a low income residential area. Really ugly side of this
 

TripleOT

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 4, 2007
7,758
Ballmer paid $2 billion for the Clippers in 2014, 10% of his net worth at the time of $20 billion. He's up $55 billion since then, to $75 billion. That's ridiculous. Ballmer could buy the other 29 NBA teams and still have a few billion in pocket chance.
 

h8mfy

New Member
Jul 15, 2005
336
Orange County, CA
I wonder if they are also apportioning them differently between men's and women's (and family/unisex) options - this has been a frequent design complaint, and today would have been a good day to promote that advancement. More than once I've brought my date into the men's room at a concert, when the line for the women's room was ridiculous.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 24, 2002
48,204
@ElUno20 and another poster who worked on ClipperVision both likely have thoughts but Ballmer, for all his spastic celebrating as well as attempts to share his life-high with his MSFT colleagues, seems a pretty great owner from a fan perspective.

I also hope that ClipperVision is more widely implemented. I really want to see what its like watching games with it day in and out. "25% and declining from that spot...no! no! no!...".
 

bankshot1

Member
SoSH Member
Feb 12, 2003
24,651
where I was last at
The Celts have the parquet and the Clippers will have urinals.

The Clippers have a long history of pissing themselves, so credit to Ballmer for enabling Clipper fans to share that Clipper tradition in game and in style and comfort.
 
Last edited:

soxhop411

news aggravator
SoSH Member
Dec 4, 2009
46,274
@ElUno20 and another poster who worked on ClipperVision both likely have thoughts but Ballmer, for all his spastic celebrating as well as attempts to share his life-high with his MSFT colleagues, seems a pretty great owner from a fan perspective.

I also hope that ClipperVision is more widely implemented. I really want to see what its like watching games with it day in and out. "25% and declining from that spot...no! no! no!...".
I assume that would be a bit or a large ask, unless the owners pony up the money to upgrade their broadcast infrastructure... (Ballmer of course would spend Steve Cohen amounts of money to win a ring (of course the NBA is different than MLB)

not all owners would want to spend that money
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 24, 2002
48,204
I assume that would be a bit or a large ask, unless the owners pony up the money to upgrade their broadcast infrastructure... (Ballmer of course would spend Steve Cohen amounts of money to win a ring (of course the NBA is different than MLB)

not all owners would want to spend that money
Agreed - you are likely spot on.

That said I was thinking that it could be offered as a feature on LP. Ballmer can recoup some investment and the owners can socialize the cost of the feature being offered to viewers.

Who wouldn't want to see the actual shooting percentage for your least favorite rotation player as they hoist a contested shot early in the clock?

Actually the answer to that might just be everyone but me.
 

ElUno20

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 19, 2005
6,055
@ElUno20 and another poster who worked on ClipperVision both likely have thoughts but Ballmer, for all his spastic celebrating as well as attempts to share his life-high with his MSFT colleagues, seems a pretty great owner from a fan perspective.

I also hope that ClipperVision is more widely implemented. I really want to see what its like watching games with it day in and out. "25% and declining from that spot...no! no! no!...".
Zero grips with Balmer. He's been a great owner and he cares.

I actually drove by the dome this weekend and i have zero doubts it could have been ready sooner (it has moved incredibly fast from just a few months ago) but im guessing the lease deal with Staples is why they set the date to what it is.

Between that, sofi, the forum and the surrounding grounds used for festivals, it's gotta be hell living there. I have coworkers who live that way and they fn hate it.