Kia Forum

The Kia Forum (also known as Los Angeles Forum or formerly the Forum) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Inglewood, California, United States, adjacent to Los Angeles. Located on West Manchester Boulevard, with Pincay Drive to the south and between Kareem Court and Prairie Avenue to the east and west, it is north of SoFi Stadium and the Hollywood Park Casino, and about 3 miles (4.8 km) east of the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

The Forum opened on December 30, 1967. Architect Charles Luckman's vision was realized by engineers Carl Johnson and Svend Nielsen. It was a groundbreaking structure without extensive internal support pillars that was unique in an indoor arena the size of the Forum.

From 1967 to 1999, the Forum was home to the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL) before both teams joined the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers at the Crypto.com Arena, then known as the Staples Center. From 1997 to 2001, the Forum was also the home of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks until they moved to Crypto.com Arena as well.

Alongside Madison Square Garden in New York City, the Forum was once one of the best-known indoor sports venues in the U.S., largely due to the Lakers' success and the Hollywood celebrities often seen there. It was the site of the 1972 and 1983 NBA All-Star Games, the 1981 NHL All-Star Game, 1984 Olympic basketball, and the Big West Conference (from 1983 to 1988) and 1989 Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball tournaments. The venue also hosted tennis and boxing matches, as well as major music concerts and political events.

In 2000, the Forum was acquired by the Faithful Central Bible Church, which used it for occasional church services and leased it for sporting events, concerts, and other events. In 2012, the Forum was purchased by the Madison Square Garden Company (MSG), for $23.5 million; MSG announced plans to renovate the arena as a world-class concert venue. On September 24, 2014, the Forum was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. On March 24, 2020, Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer purchased The Forum from MSG for $400 million.

The Forum has previously been known as the Great Western Forum, and was nicknamed "the Fabulous Forum" by long-time Lakers play-by-play announcer Chick Hearn. It is also known informally as the LA Forum to distinguish it from other places with the name "Forum".

History

1960s and 1970s

On the site of a former golf course, the "fabulous" Forum (as it was colloquially known to locals) was built in 1967 by Jack Kent Cooke (owner of the Lakers and founding owner of the Kings). The Canadian Cooke, who enjoyed ice hockey, was determined to bring the National Hockey League (NHL) to Los Angeles.

Jack Kent Cooke ownership

In 1966, the NHL announced that it was adding six new franchises for 1967, and Cooke prepared a bid. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission, which operated the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, supported a competing bid headed by Los Angeles Rams owner Dan Reeves—who already had a hockey team at the Arena, the Western Hockey League's Los Angeles Blades. The Commission told Cooke that if he won the franchise, he would not be allowed to use the facility. In response, Cooke planned to build a new arena in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood. Nearly 30 years later, Cooke told Los Angeles Times sportswriter Steve Springer that he remembered "one official representing the commission laughing at him" when Cooke said he would build in Inglewood. Cooke won the franchise, paying $2 million for the Los Angeles club, which he called the Kings. According to Springer, "Cooke went to Inglewood and built the Forum. Goodbye, Lakers. Goodbye, Kings."

The round, $16 million building was designed by Los Angeles architect Charles Luckman to be "reminiscent of Roman coliseums." The arena seats 17,505 for basketball, 16,005 for hockey and up to 18,000 for musical concerts; although it has no luxury suites, it had 2,400 club seats for events. More than 70% of the seats are between the goals, and no seat is more than 170 feet (52 m) from the playing surface.

During the Cooke era, the Forum hosted five NBA Finals in ist first six years (1967–73). The Boston Celtics celebrated both the 1968 and 1969 championships in the arena, the latter of which marked the final games Bill Russell ever played. The Lakers won the 1972 NBA Finals at the Forum in Game 5, while the New York Knicks' second and most recent championship was also clinched in a Game 5 at the same venue the following season.

1980s

The Lakers were successful during the 1980s, winning five NBA championships and making the NBA Finals every year except 1981 and 1986. They won the 1982, 1987 and 1988 championships at the Forum. 

The Lakers' owner, Jerry Buss, also purchased the Los Angeles Strings expansion franchise of the second incarnation of TeamTennis (the original team and league having folded in 1978) and appointed his 19-year-old daughter Jeanie Buss as the tennis team's general manager, with all home matches played at the Forum.

Great Western era

On December 5, 1988, it was announced that Jerry Buss sold the arena's naming rights to Great Western Savings & Loan, coinciding with the arrival in Los Angeles of hockey star Wayne Gretzky. The building exterior was repainted blue, replacing ist original "California sunset red." It was renamed the Great Western Forum; the name was retained for several years, even after Great Western was acquired by Washington Mutual (now Chase) and ceased to exist. Although naming-rights agreements are now commonplace in major American sports, they were rare at the time of Buss's deal with Great Western. There was some initial criticism of the name change, and local residents continued to call the arena "the Forum." Adverse reaction was eventually muted; Great Western Forum sounded like a natural name because of the arena's location in the western United States.

1990s

Before the 1991–92 NBA and NHL seasons, a new scoreboard was installed, replacing the one in use since the building opened in 1967. The original scoreboard, designed by All American Scoreboards in Pardeeville, Wisconsin, had a two-line message board on each side (the third electronic message board in the NHL, and the second in the NBA). The new scoreboard, designed by Daktronics, kept the two-line message boards and added a Sony Jumbotron scoreboard on each side.

2000s

Faithful Central Bible Church, with a congregation of over 12,000, purchased the Great Western Forum at the end of 2000 and began holding church services there on Sunday mornings. Unlike Houston's Lakewood Church, which converted the former Summit into their church, Faithful Central representatives said that they never intended to convert the arena for religious purposes; in 2009, the church discontinued their regular use of the Forum for services.

During the Faithful Central ownership, the arena was available for concerts, sporting events and other activities requiring a large venue. It was owned by the church's for-profit entity, Forum Enterprises, which accommodated secular and pop-music artists. The church influenced the approval of performers, however; in 2005 and 2009 the Forum refused to allow performances by heavy metal band Lamb of God, whose former name was Burn the Priest.

2010s: MSG era

In 2011, Prince began a 21-show run at the Forum. After acquiring the arena in June 2012, the Madison Square Garden Company announced plans for a $50 million renovation. The City of Inglewood made an $18 million commercial-rehabilitation loan, contingent on MSG's $50 million investment. The arena was renamed "The Forum, presented by Chase" to reflect ist sponsor, Chase Bank (which had incidentally purchased Great Western's legal successor, Washington Mutual, a few years earlier), and ist exterior returned to the original red. New features also included new lighting, new seating, LED video systems and HD screen and new retail.

2020s: Acquisition by Steve Ballmer

On March 24, 2020, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer announced that he had agreed to acquire the Forum from MSG for $400 million. The acquisition was needed in order to enable the construction of the Clippers' new Intuit Dome in Inglewood; the Clippers accused MSG of using litigation to block construction of the new arena, which they feared would cannibalize the Forum's live events business.

The venue was closed from March 2020 to July 31, 2021, due to COVID-19. The Forum reopened on July 31, 2021, hosting Bellator 263. A concert by the Foo Fighters on July 17, 2021, was originally scheduled to be ist first event, but it was postponed due to COVID-19 cases within the band's staff.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Kia Forum" and modified on September 9, 2024 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.