Steve Ballmer buying The Forum is the easiest path to LA Clippers stadium

Buy opting to just purchase The Forum, Steve Ballmer is ensuring he has the easiest path to build the LA Clippers new arena.

Ever since it was announced that the LA Clippers would build a brand-new 18,000 seat arena in Inglewood, there has been the issue of the legal battle with Madison Square Garden Co. owner James Dolan.

Dolan, who currently owns The Forum, has been engaged with Ballmer in a legal battle in order to block the construction of the new arena. According to Kevin Arovitz of ESPN, Ballmer plans to circumvent this issue by just purchasing The Forum.

Given how stubborn James Dolan is perceived to be, buying The Forum is by far the easiest solution for Ballmer. He nor the Clippers organization has commented on the supposed purchase but from the ESPN piece, it seems all but a done deal.

In lieu of engaging in a long drawn out legal battle, opting to buy the historical arena is an easy choice. By doing so, Ballmer can put this behind him and get the team their new stadium. Given the team’s chance to win a championship or two over the next couple of seasons, getting that arena done sooner rather then later makes sense.

If the Clippers can win a championship, there will still be a lot of interest in the franchise when the arena opens in 2024. Los Angeles is and will likely always be a Lakers town, so the idea of attracting fans to a new arena has to be a little intimidating. Getting it done while perceived interest in the team is high is an absolute must.

The arena should be state of the art and will offer numerous jobs, housing, funding to youth programs, and more as part of Ballmer’s agreement with Inglewood to adopt a $100 million community benefits plan.

With this legal issue seemingly out of the way, Clipper Nation can finally begin to officially count down the days until their new stadium opens in Inglewood and the team no longer has to play matinee games, be referred to as “renters”, nor get constantly told to leave.