Arena Delay Is Out of Wachs

As if this comes as a big surprise, I’m not real smart.

I don’t understand my electric bill. I am frightened of my VCR. I recently tried to buy groceries with a phone card.

So anyway, Wednesday, I called Joel Wachs with a question.

Tell me again, why can’t we let the Kings’ owners build us a downtown arena?

I mean, if they want to? If they are going to pay for it? The whole thing?

“Fine,” the mayor said. “Let them.”

(Oops. He’s not the mayor yet. I’ve been making that mistake lately. So has he.)

So Mr. Councilman, if you agree they should build it, why are you delaying the project, threatening to kill it, by demanding a public vote on it?

I mean, they have guaranteed to pay for all of it. It will cost the taxpayers zero. Why do we need to vote on a freebie?

“The trend today is to require voter approval on issues like this,” Wachs said. “The public dissatisfaction with pro sports owners and teams is great.”

Well, OK, so this about a trend.

I understand that trend.

I don’t believe public money should be used to help rich sports owners who treat cities like old sport coats.

I believe the good people of St. Louis rolled over like panting dogs when the Rams came calling, humiliating themselves by donating $280 million to make Georgia Frontiere richer.

I believe Maryland taxpayers are suckers for contributing $14 million a year to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, no matter how important it makes them feel.

I believe that the $124 million donated to the Houston Oilers by the state of Tennessee would have been better spent on such apparently secondary items as education and police.

People in these parts should be proud that they will not be accomplices to these owners and their extortion.

But Mr. Councilman, this ain’t that.

The original deal by the Kings’ owners called for the city to put up $70 million to buy the land with the understanding that the money would be paid off in revenues generated by arena.

It was like somebody agreeing to give a piece of the park to an organ grinder and his monkey, with the promise it would make that money back by selling sodas to everyone who watched the act.

They weren’t paying the grinder. They weren’t buying the monkey. Independent experts said this act would be so impressive, they would make back their money, and then some.

Wachs howled anyway, saying he wanted the $70 million guaranteed.

Good for you, Mr. Councilman. You did your job.

You, with help from our columnist Bill Boyarsky, pushed a secretive lease into the open, and two rich guys against the wall.

But you fell asleep during the best part.

The part where the rich guys caved in.

Hello? Since Friday, the money has been guaranteed.

As of Wednesday, the entire lease is public, complete with the language that guarantees that both the Kings and Lakers will play in the city for 25 years.

Sure, Philip Anschutz and Edward Roski Jr. are trying to make money like any other sports owner, with one exception.

They are willing to pay their way.

They have given you everything you wanted, everything this city deserves.

You are a hero, Mr. Councilman, and in four years this little move will go a long way toward electing you mayor.

As long as you can be unselfish enough to know when to quit.

Which is right now.

There are enough people out there who equate fighting sports owners with fighting crime, and will sign your initiative petition without knowing the facts, and will force this matter to a vote.

That will force a delay of the project that could cause these two rich guys to look elsewhere, to other cities where dumb officials really will open their wallets.

Not to mention, the way the initiative is worded, it could keep other rich guys from coming here and trying to do what Anschutz and Roski are doing.

We do not want to be suckers.

But we also don’t want to be fools.

Speaking of which, somebody told me that the campaign manager for this initiative campaign, Rick Taylor, also has done work for officials in Inglewood . . . which would like to keep the Kings and Lakers.

Nah, Mr. Wachs, you are too sharp to be a pawn.

But are you sharp enough to recognize when it’s time for the next crusade?

“Their guarantee is only as good as the paper it’s written on,” Wachs said Wednesday. “I would like to see that $70 million up front.”

And when you get it up front, are you then going to ask for it in unmarked bills?

Isn’t that a switch. A city official holding a sports owner hostage--while we are blowing a chance to revitalize downtown, save the dying convention center, and build a community cornerstone at that owner’s expense.

I’m not a smart guy.

But this whole thing seems really dumb.

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MORE ON THE ARENA

* THE NEWS: Hoping to avoid delays, developers of a new sports arena adopted a posture of nearly full disclosure. A1

* THE SPIN: A public election on the downtown Los Angeles arena sounds good, but it won’t work. Bill Boyarsky’s column. B1