MSG Co., which owns The Forum, alleges in a lawsuit that Inglewood Mayor James Butts "orchestrated a 'fraudulent scheme' to clear the way" for a proposed Clippers arena and entertainment district nearby, according to Nathan Fenno of the L.A. TIMES. The complaint is the latest escalation in MSG's "fight against the privately-financed project." In addition to Butts, Inglewood's city council, two city-related agencies and Murphy's Bowl LLC, the Clippers-controlled company behind the arena, are "named in the complaint." The lawsuit, which "accuses the parties of fraud and breach of contract, largely mirrors two claims for damages MSG filed with Inglewood last year." MSG alleged in the complaint that Butts "tricked the company last year into terminating a lease to use vacant city-owned land for overflow parking -- many of the same parcels where an arena could be built -- in order to develop a technology park." Inglewood's city council "approved a 36-month exclusive negotiating agreement with Murphy's Bowl" that included a nonrefundable $1.5M deposit to "cover the city's costs to explore the project." The lawsuit claims the arena would "violate MSG's development agreement with Inglewood and accuses Murphy's Bowl of interfering in the contract" (L.A. TIMES, 3/6). BILLBOARD's Dave Brooks noted the suit says Butts "tried to avoid creating a paper trail" with The Forum by using personal email accounts and text messages from his cell phone to "coax company officials to end the parking lot lease agreement." Since the Clippers were bought by Steve Ballmer in '14, the team has "wanted to move out of the Staples Center." Last year, Ballmer announced plans to "leave the team’s longtime home" when its lease expires at the end of the '23-24 season (BILLBOARD.com, 3/5).
