Clippers Eye Possible Move To Inglewood But Not Until The 2024 Season

The Lakers used to play in Inglewood. Soon the Rams and Chargers will be playing in Inglewood. And then the Clippers? Stan Kroenke, who owns the Rams and has moved the team from St. Louis and is funding a multi-billion dollar stadium in Inglewood, has attended or sent representatives to several meetings with Clippers owner Steve Ballmer in recent weeks. They’ve talked about the Clippers building an arena in Inglewood and sharing parking with the Rams’facility.

The Rams are scheduled to open their stadium in 2019 and the Clippers would join in 2024 when their Staples Center lease expires. Right now they’re just talking. But there’s good reason to believe this could happen. Ballmer has made it known he’s unhappy with terms of his Staples center lease due primarily to playing dates going to the Lakers and Kings before the Clippers. He has stated previously that he won’t move the Clippers to Seattle, his former home but he’d like to build an arena for the Clippers somewhere in Southern California. He’ll continue to call them the Los Angeles Clippers but some teams in various sports play in suburban cities. Remember the Los Angeles Lakers won championships at the Forum in Inglewood One of Ballmer’ss objections is the Clippers often get Sunday afternoon dates while the Lakers get to play at 6:30.

As the landlord Kroenke would get revenue from Clippers parking. Right now the Clippers are vying for a high draft position while the Lakers are heading for a fourth consecutive year of failing to make the playoffs. But the Lakers built up a lot of credibility by winning the NBA championship 16 times; Should the Clippers break through once before Blake Griffin and Chris Paul retire or move to other teams it would enhance their chances of gaining important popularity. But so far that hasn’t happened. Ballmer hasn’t made a commitment to Inglewood but that city is a strong contender. Previously West Los Angeles has been on Ballmer’s mind. So stay tuned because there’s likely to be a lot more to this story as time goes along. For now the Clippers are busy enough trying to recover from injuries to Griffin and Paul. They’ve lost ground in the race to the playoffs while

Houston, Oklahoma City and Utah have made strong bids for the playoff seedings from third to fifth. I’m assuming Golden State and San Antonio will be one and two. The Clippers will have to watch out for Memphis, which could drop the Clippers to no. 7.