Clippers news: Inglewood Forum files suits against city mayor for holding secret meeting to build new stadium

With the L.A. Clippers rumored to be having their own in the future, the Inglewood Forum’s owner has long been thought of as possibly having a hand in helping them have their new home.

Building a new sports stadium to be used by a professional team is not the easiest of tasks. From the planning sessions to finding private funders for it, these are just some of the challenges the personnel in charge of such a big project must be ready to deal with.

With the L.A. Clippers rumored to be having their own in the future, the Inglewood Forum’s owner has long been thought of as possibly having a hand in helping them have their new home. However, its owner recently filed a lawsuit against the mayor of Inglewood, for allegedly having some secret negotiations with the team about building their new arena, according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.

“The suit alleges that Inglewood and its mayor breached their contract with the Forum when it entered into secret negotiations with the Clippers regarding 15 acres of property — which had been leased by the Forum for overflow parking — in January 2017.”

“The Forum had leased the land, with an option to buy it as part of its original development agreement with the city.

The suit alleges, however, that in January 2017, [Mayor] Butts began pressuring the Forum to terminate its parking lease agreement so he could develop a “technology park” on the space. The suit alleges that Butts began asking the Forum to use his personal email and cellphone accounts to avoid a paper trail on these talks.”

It also includes an accusation that Butts misled the Forum’s owner that a major tenant was interested in committing to a technology park, but was trying to come up with a deal with the Clippers instead.

“The suit alleges that in March, Butts told the Forum he had a major tenant “on the hook” and ready to commit to the technology park, but that he was actually negotiating with the Clippers at that time, in breach of the contractual agreement.”

It remains to be seen what will be the outcome of the case, and if it will be pursued by the Forum’s owner, or a settlement could be made. However, one thing that’s certain is it will a delay in the Clippers’ move from Staples Center, which means that they may share the home court with the Los Angeles Lakers longer.