MORE: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/1...xploring-sites-new-los-angeles-clippers-arenaClippers owner Steve Ballmer has begun to explore potential sites for a new Clippers arena, multiple NBA sources said.
The Clippers would neither confirm nor deny they are actively searching for a location, but one NBA source said that an area that piques the franchise's interest is Los Angeles' west side.
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The Honda Center is in Anaheim and the Toyota Center is in Houston.It's all about revenue and available dates. The Clippers were latecomers to Staples Center which was conceived as a building for the Lakers and Kings. It was widely thought that the Clippers would ultimately end up at what's now known as Toyota Center in Anaheim.
Yeah good point about the access. Honestly the more I think about it the more I think an arena in Playa Vista would be kind of a disaster. Can you imagine 15,000 cars all taking Jefferson over 40 nights a year? I don't even live there and I feel NIMBY rage at the project just thinking about it.Ha, just posted about this in the LA Projects thread, wish I'd seen it here first. I agree with the general sentiment that finding a true Westside arena site is going to be a monstrous task.
The Playa Vista idea seems relatively credible, although access isn't great and the NIMBY resistance will be huge.
I think there are potential sites around LAX/Howard Hughes center -- i.e. one of the massive parking lots/structures in the flightpath that would incur minimal NIMBYism.
Depending on how you stretch your definition of the "Westside," there are a number of industrial sites in Hawthorne and the inland parts of the South Bay, which would still allow Ballmer to avail himself of the Silicon Beach/tech bro culture. But if you're stretching your definition, it does make you wonder about the Forum. Not sure it will cut it as a 21st century NBA arena, but maybe after another $500 Million.
Anywhere in the core of the Westside gets insanely tricky, but I do wonder about a couple of currently questionable developments that seem ripe to be taken over: 1) the 30-story tower at La Cienega/Jefferson currently under massive fire, and 2) the seemingly stalled skyscraper at Constellation/Ave of the Stars on top of the new Century City Purple Line stop.
Yeah, about that...Clippers are perfectly happy in LA, they have a very good fan base and a share of the 2nd most important media market in the US.
Everyone wants to play The Forum. It's an historic music venue with some of the finest acoustics of any concert building in the world.I imagine the new Clippers arena taking away most of the Forum's business to the point of The Forum being closed down and demolished.