ARENA BACKERS OK NEW PLAN TO PAY EXPENSES.

Byline: Rick Orlov Daily News Staff Writer

Developers of a proposed downtown sports arena-entertainment complex agreed to a new set of terms Wednesday to cover all city costs to avert the prospect of a public vote that could have jeopardized the $300 million project.

Terms of the new agreement were released by Councilman Joel Wachs, who had threatened to circulate a petition requesting a public vote on the project unless all city costs were guaranteed.

Wachs said developers Edward Roski Jr. and Philip Anschutz agreed after a new round of negotiations to pay the city for all land to be acquired and provide a guaranty that revenues will cover any city costs in advancing money for the project.

``This is a major victory for the taxpayers and it is only because of the threat of the initiative that they have agreed to this,'' Wachs said.

``It represents almost everything we've been fighting for over the past 12 months. Essentially, they've given in on everything - including all public subsidies from the city's general fund. This is the best arena proposal ever negotiated in the United States.''

The developers want to build the 20,000-seat arena for the Los Angeles Kings pro hockey team and Lakers pro basketball team on the site of the Convention Center's North Hall.

Attorney George Mihlsten, representing the developers, said the new proposal represents a greater risk for them with little leeway for any mistakes.

``The arena company has significantly more risk than we did before,'' Mihlsten said. ``This transaction shows our commitment to be in Los Angeles and make Los Angeles our home.

``We agreed to this because we thought it was critical to get moving with this transaction with the benefit being the commitment of Councilman Wachs to carve the arena out of his initiative.''

Kings President Tim Leiweke said it also will require the developers to make sure the facility opens in October 1999 for that season and that it reach its goals in the number of events to be held.

``There isn't much room for mistakes,'' Leiweke said. ``We'll have to meet all our projections.''

Wachs has been meeting with attorneys for the developers for several weeks while fine-tuning his initiative. He said the new proposal came up last week.

As a result, Wachs said he is delaying action on trying to qualify one of two potential initiatives until the City Council takes final action on the agreement this month. Also, he said he is now looking at qualifying the measure for the November 1998 ballot, after originally hoping to get on the June ballot.

``If they change their mind and don't go along, I will pursue my first initiative that would have the taxpayers vote on using any tax funds for a professional sports franchise,'' Wachs said. ``If they do follow through with this, I'll qualify a second initiative that excludes them.''

Wachs said there are two key changes that could result in increased revenue to the city if the project goes well or save taxpayers up to $63 million if something goes wrong.

One of the alterations is an agreement by the developers to give up getting credit toward their debt from dollars generated for the city from project-related property, sales, hotel occupancy or other taxes.

Secondly, the developers agreed to provide a guarantee from a financial institution to cover all of the city's costs.

The developers would be allowed to apply a ticket surcharge toward the city costs.

Wachs said the city's costs also were reduced from $70 million to $58 million, paring the annual costs to about $4.8 million. That money will be advanced to acquire property adjacent to the Convention Center site for use initially as parking and later for a hotel and entertainment-retail complex.

The agreement does call for the Community Redevelopment Agency to pay $12 million to make public improvements in the area. Wachs said CRA payments cannot be subject to a public vote.

The councilman has been the leading critic of the proposal because of the use of tax dollars and he has been widely criticized for his stance by business groups and elected officials.