The Issue Is the Arena, Period

Since the Los Angeles City Council first approved the project in concept four months ago, debate over the financial details of the proposed downtown sports arena has mushroomed into a kind of referendum on a host of larger issues.

Corrosive tensions between the council and the mayor, widening disparities locally and nationally between rich and poor, the political futures of individual council members, the problems of local government finance and the wisdom of public assistance to profitable sports enterprises--each of these broader subjects has shadowed the negotiations over the proposed new home for the Lakers and the Kings professional sports teams. Each is a legitimate area of public interest. But if construction of an arena would not alone provide answers in these matters, certainly having no arena would provide none.

Today the full City Council could vote on the detailed financing plan its negotiators reached with developers Edward P. Roski and Philip Anschutz. Approval would legally bind neither the city nor the developers but would signal hard-won consensus on key details. Moreover, approval would move the project to the next phase: drafting contracts that will bind the parties. The construction could start soon after that.

When the City Council takes up the nonbinding proposal, members would best serve their constituents by basing their vote on the merits of the arena and the arena only. Grinding debate over social and political concerns has at times obscured the many potential benefits that an arena offers to Los Angeles.

The 20,000-seat facility, adjacent to the Convention Center, would bring to a central Los Angeles location two successful pro teams contractually obligated to play here for the next 25 years. The arena would draw old and new fans and new city tax revenue. Retail development planned adjacent to the arena and perhaps a hotel in the future offer the prospect of enlivening not just the moribund area around the Convention Center but much of the city’s core as well.

The city’s contribution to this venture consists largely of acquiring and preparing the site. The developers would build and operate the $200-million facility. Neither side thinks the deal before the council is perfect, and both the city and the developer carry some risk.

This deal is about as good as it can get. Now, the council should make it happen.