Nearly a year and a half after the Clippers and city of Inglewood "signed an exclusive negotiating agreement" to explore a new arena project, the land "remains at the center of a legal brawl" between MSG Co., which owns the nearby Forum, and the Clippers, according to Nathan Fenno of the L.A. TIMES. Clippers Owner Steve Ballmer wants his team to have a "state-of-the-art competition venue, team offices, practice facility, sports medicine clinic and more." Meanwhile, the Clippers and MSG have "lobbed accusations and subpoenas at each other." The two sides "poured cash into last month's mayoral election," with MSG donating more than $700,000 to oppose Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr., a "staunch arena supporter." Meanwhile, Ballmer "backed the mayor with about $440,000, helping Butts coast to a third term with 63% of the vote." The sides have "filed thousands of pages of documents, many heavily redacted or sealed, in six lawsuits that involve at least eight law firms plus city and county attorneys." The dispute "escalated Tuesday when Murphy's Bowl LLC, the Clippers-controlled company behind the arena, countersued MSG in L.A. County Superior Court." The filing "accused MSG of using the lawsuits to force the Clippers to 'abandon their plan to move to Inglewood.'" Murphy's Bowl "wants the court to declare its 36-month exclusive negotiating agreement with Inglewood to be valid and enforceable." MSG, which invested $100M to overhaul The Forum in '13, "claimed that Inglewood breached its development agreement by allowing a competing arena less than two miles from its venue and violated California's Public Records Act by only producing a handful of documents in response to a request for communications about the arena." Nothing is "expected to be resolved soon" (L.A. TIMES, 12/9).
