INGLEWOOD, CA-The first glimpse of the $50-million revitalization of the Forum, the former home of the Los Angeles Lakers and a music Mecca for several decades, will be unveiled on Tuesday. The arena is expected to re-open as an entertainment venue early next year.

The Forum is located at 3900 W. Manchester Blvd. near the site of the Hollywood Park racetrack and casino. The racetrack will hold its final racing season this Fall and give way to a massive mixed-use complex.

Madison Square Garden Corp. acquired the Forum in June, 2012 for $23.5 million. The Forum at that time was owned by the Faithful Central Bible Church, which acquired the facilty in 2000 and used it for church services and leased it for concerts and sporting events. The one-time home of basketball's Lakers and hockey's L.A. Kings, the Forum was eclipsed when Staples Center opened in downtown L.A., with the sports teams decamping in 1999.

At the time of its Forum acquisition, MSG said it would turn the Forum into a world-class concert facility. Tuesday's event will see Irving Azoff, former head of Live Nation and a long-time major music executive and manager, attending and participating in the unveiling. The first act to appear in the new Forum is expected to be announced Tuesday, as well as the date of the first event.

A statement made at the time the purchase was revealed last year provides clues to the plans to be announced on Tuesday. "We are honored to be adding the Forum to our iconic list of venues, and to call Inglewood our West Coast home," said James L. Dolan, executive chairman, the Madison Square Garden Co. "We look forward to building on the Forum's outstanding legacy in music, and to utilizing our expertise to ensure it once again becomes a thriving destination for both artists and music fans, as well as an active member of the Inglewood community."

The Madison Square Garden Co. just completed a billion-dollar revitalization of the iconic Madison Square Garden arena in New York City, only to learn this week that its lease will run out in a decade, causing the arena to give way to a revamped Pennsylvania Station. MSG owns the New York Knicks, hockey's N.Y. Rangers and the MSG Network. The company also owns and was instrumental in the revitalizations of Radio City Music Hall and the Beacon Theatre in NYC. MSG also owns the Fuse music channel, the Wang Theater in Boston and the Chicago Theatre.

MSG will maintain corporate offices at the Forum, its first presence on the West Coast. It likely will use the Forum as a key to its national network of entertainment venues, relying on the expertise of Azoff, who turned Live Nation into an entertainment behemoth before exiting that company as chairman/CEO at the end of 2012. Azoff has since focused on music management, with clients including the Eagles, Steely Dan and Christina Aguilera.

The Forum opened in 1967 and has hosted concerts by virtually all the top names in music during its three decades as a major arena. It was also the site of the Lakers vaunted “Showtime” teams, which Magic Johnson led to several NBA championships.

The Forum also hosted the 1972 and 1983 NBA All-Star games, the 1981 NHL All-Star game, the basketball tournament for the 1984 Summer Olympics and the 1989 Pacific-10 men's basketball tournament. The Forum was known as the Great Western Forum for a 15-year period, marking it as one of the first major venues to adopt a corporately-sponsored name.

MSG's purchase and revamp of the Forum had several conditions attached, including mandates to work with the local Inglewood community, a minimum ticket sales guarantee, local hiring, rent-free use of the Forum by the city for charity, and free use of the facility's parking for a farmers market.

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The Forum Will be Fabulous Again

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