The Brief

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

The friendship that developed between billionaire Stan Kroenke and Inglewood Mayor James Butts helped bring the NFL back to Los Angeles and spark the construction of venues now scheduled to host some of the world’s most-watched events — at least, that’s how the mayor has often told the story. 

But in July 2025, a company that operates Inglewood’s 300-acre Hollywood Park development — home to SoFi Stadium and owned by Kroenke — sued the city of Inglewood, trying to stop the installation of more than 100 digital billboards near the stadium and several other event venues.

“Dear Stan,” Butts responded in a letter, telling the largest landowner in America he was “greatly surprised” by having been recently served.

“I would have expected a call from you personally and not just a lawyer’s letter and a lawsuit,” Butts wrote.

Peppered among repeated requests to sit down man-to-man and work it out, Butts wrote that he would do whatever it takes to fight Kroenke’s legal challenges to the city’s billboard program.

Butts would later make a bombshell argument: that the very contract the stadium was built on was void.

Kroenke isn’t the only billionaire Butts has been legally feuding with. A business owned by Steve Ballmer, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers and the Intuit Dome, has also sued to stop the city from moving forward with its billboard network.

At the heart of each case is a looming conflict over advertising territory — who gets to control what millions of gamegoers see and who gets to cash checks from brands eager to hawk their products to people attending the upcoming World Cup, the 2027 Super Bowl and the 2028 Olympics. 

The legal flexing between Butts and the billionaires — recounted in court filings and interviews by The LA Local — threatens to go beyond billboard advertising and undo the public-private partnerships that built one of the nation’s premier stadium and venue hubs. As the conflict grows, so do the hazards to the city’s financial prospects, its residents’ quality of life and Butts’ campaign for a fifth term as mayor. 

Butts declined to comment for this story after being contacted multiple times. John Quinn, a lawyer for Hollywood Park, told The LA Local that the claims made by the mayor and his administration raise fundamental questions about whether the city is a reliable place to do business.

“That kind of uncertainty doesn’t just affect this project, it makes it harder for anyone to trust long-term agreements with the city, which could deter future investment and limit opportunities for residents,” Quinn said.

The billboard battles ignite

Inglewood’s bet on building and redeveloping stadiums and event venues in the wake of the Great Recession was a gamble from the start. Research shows that city investments in sports stadiums often don’t pay in the ways city leaders hope.

When Butts was elected mayor, he inherited a city with considerable financial challenges. Still, he led an effort in 2012 to use $18 million in city funds to help renovate what is now the Kia Forum. In 2015, the City Council voted unanimously to approve the construction of what would become SoFi Stadium. Development after development followed.

In some ways, Butts’ bet paid off. The teams and their fans flocked to the city. SoFi Stadium is home to two NFL franchises, one of which won the Super Bowl there in 2022. The Clippers launched their first season at the newly built Intuit Dome in late 2024. By 2025, SoFi Stadium announced that 10 million people had attended events there since its opening. 

And more fans are expected for the major international sporting events on the horizon. About 5 million people registered to purchase tickets to the 2028 Olympics, and the LA Sports and Entertainment Commission forecasts the World Cup could inject about $17 million into Inglewood’s economy.

The city is paid a portion of ticket admissions and parking revenue from all venues, and is in a far better financial position than it was before the stadium boom. Its unemployment rate is about 6%, according to the California Employment Development Department, down from nearly 16% when Butts was first elected. The city’s budget shows it received about $19 million in revenue related to venue admissions and $7.7 million related to parking in fiscal year 2024-25.

But the success of SoFi alone is beginning to come at a cost. According to the contract between the city and Hollywood Park, once the city receives $25 million in tax revenue from the development in any given year, it has to pay several businesses owned by Kroenke back for various improvements made to the city during construction.

A spokesperson for Hollywood Park’s legal team said that the city had surpassed $25 million in annual revenue by 2022.

The stadium operating company claims the city owes it about $376 million.

It hasn’t always been clear to residents that the money the city makes outweighs the costs they pay. Inglewood’s business corridor has continued to struggle. Despite public outcry, water and sewer rates increased last year. Nearly every weekend, parking and traffic problems reach severe levels as the city hosts various events.

In April 2025, the Inglewood City Council quietly launched its own project to independently capitalize on eventgoers by advertising to them. It awarded a 20-year contract, which can be extended for decades, giving WOW Media, a Los Angeles advertising firm, exclusive rights to expand a series of billboards near the Inglewood stadiums. 

Butts pitched the project as a transportation information network that could be used to alert the public to critical safety information, according to City Council filings.

Digital billboards in Inglewood on Saturday.

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Dania Maxwell

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The LA Local

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Digital billboards in Inglewood on Saturday.

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Dania Maxwell

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The LA Local

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Digital billboards in Inglewood on Saturday.

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Dania Maxwell

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The LA Local

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The WOW Media contract involves constructing digital billboards in medians and near sidewalks of public streets. In total, the network could include what the city described as 60 digital signs and 108 digital screens. WOW Media would pay about 40% of the ad revenue to the city as “rent,” according to the contract.

WOW did not respond to a request for comment to this story.

The city’s billboard project took the stadium businesses completely by surprise, as they manage their own digital advertising operations on their properties. 

Businesses tied to Kroenke and Hollywood Park sued the city last July, saying the billboards threaten their own advertising business and undermine the branding of the teams and events hosted there. Those linked to Ballmer, the Intuit Dome and the Kia Forum followed with nearly identical claims. The two share the same law firm for the suits. 

Businesses and lawyers connected to Ballmer’s suits did not respond to The LA Local’s inquiries.

But the companies claim that the city launched its billboard campaign out of sight of the public and the owners of the stadiums. The city did not open the project up to bids from other advertising companies and did not hold a public hearing before the vote. The City Council approved the motion in April, and the companies said in court filings they did not learn about the project until late May.

In suits that attracted national and local media coverage, the companies argue that the city’s plan violates its own policies barring billboards in the public right-of-way and that the city approved the permits for construction of the billboards the month before the contract was voted on. 

They also said that the city’s billboard project “pulled the rug out” from under contracts establishing the standards the parties agreed to maintain to operate the stadiums and the millions they make each year.

Butts claims SoFi deal is void 

Screenshot from ‘Mission Inglewood- State of The City’ short film.

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via Youtube: City of Inglewood account

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Butts has long said he should be credited with saving the city from bankruptcy by spearheading venue development when he took office in 2011. In fact, the city of Inglewood released a video on YouTube in 2024 in the style of an action film showing him manning a war room, where he is briefed on the dire straits the city faced at the beginning of his tenure. 

Much like in the video, with characteristic confidence, Butts has repeatedly said he prevailed in the city’s seemingly impossible mission to once again earn it the nickname “City of Champions.”

Butts said the pending litigation prevented him from commenting, and he did not respond to questions about what consequence his legal claims could have on the city.

He previously told The LA Local that he inherited a City Council in dysfunction and reshaped it into one that attracted investment from business developers. Those same business benefits have come at a cost to public participation in local government. 

An LA Local investigation found that the Inglewood City Council rarely holds public hearings, rarely hears from the public after moving meeting times from the evening to regular business hours, and almost always votes yes unanimously on the motions it puts on its agenda. Council meetings have averaged about 30 minutes over the past two years.

In fact, the public never directly voted to approve the Hollywood Park development that became SoFi Stadium. Instead, a ballot initiative was used to add the stadium to already existing plans for the site after more than 20,000 signatures were collected. 

Among the crowning achievements of Butts’ business-friendly governing style, the City Council approved the SoFi initiative in a unanimous vote in 2015. But with the billboard legal battles intensifying, Butts dropped a bomb on the city’s deal with the profitable stadium and its related businesses.

The contract the city had agreed to with Hollywood Park to build SoFi a decade earlier was no longer valid, Butts wrote to Kroenke in July. The city would need to be reimbursed for a $20 million payment it had recently made, and Kroenke could expect no future payments on the millions they owed for infrastructure improvements under the 2015 contract, according to the letter he sent. 

Butts wrote that the city’s lawyers found the contract was void while reviewing claims Kroenke and Ballmer had made in their billboard lawsuits. A court had ruled in an unrelated case — after the Hollywood Park contract was signed — that such developments could not be approved by a signature-collecting initiative, as Inglewood had done. Butts claimed the ruling also applies to Inglewood. The LA Local found no evidence that the case has voided any other development agreement. 

“I’m surprised that your legal counsel did not advise you of the implications of that case prior to filing,” Butts wrote. 

The void contract was “very serious” he added. “Aside from the construction that has already been completed on the property, there are ongoing obligations that extend for many years and involve hundreds of millions of dollars.”

And it appears Kroenke did not directly write Butts back.

Butts wrote in August 2025 to another stadium representative, Otto Maly, that he remained interested in meeting directly with Kroenke to discuss the billboards and the purportedly void development agreement.

In it, Butts, a former police officer who later served as police chief, said city officials could be jailed for making the $20 million payment: “California Penal Code section 424 makes it a crime, punishable by incarceration, to transfer funds without legal authority.”

While he declined to comment about the claim, Butts appears to be attempting to trigger negotiations for a new development agreement. 

Months after the letter, a company owned by Kroenke sued Inglewood again to dispute its attempt to claw back the $20 million payment and reaffirm the validity of their 25-year agreement. The case remains unresolved.

After being paid millions annually for the past decade, the stadium’s lawyers wrote, “the city is repudiating all of that, in a brazen, cynical effort to avoid making the payments it promised to make, for rich benefits it has already received.”

“The potential impact here is broader than this dispute, and the risk ultimately falls on residents as it could affect job creation, business growth, and the city’s ability to sustain long-term economic momentum,” Quinn, the lawyer representing Hollywood Park for Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, told The LA Local.

Butts appears confident he can work through the conflict and the risks it poses to the city’s finances and his political future. Having recently announced a run for his fifth term as mayor, he is not acting as if he could be arrested for the city’s $20 million payment on what he claims is an illegitimate contract. 

“I’m certain we will work things out as we have in the past,” Butts wrote to Kroenke last August.

Southern California was built on radio.

"I can still hear the jingle KFWB News 98,” wrote  Taline in Los Feliz, during a recent conversation on LAist's daily news show, AirTalk, which airs on 89.3 FM. “I grew up hearing that in my dad's minivan on the way to and from school. It has a special place in my heart.”

Back in April, broadcast company Audacy announced KNX News — one of the last-remaining all-news FM stations — was leaving the FM dial where it had simulcast on 97.1 FM since 2021. The station, which is also one of the oldest in L.A., is not budging from 1070 AM where it has been on the air for more than 100 years. The move away from FM officially happened in May to make way for a new sports talk station, which Audacy officials called an area of growth for advertisers in today’s media landscape.

The move is one in a long line of changes for radio and a reminder that before podcasts, playlists and algorithms, many Southern Californians built their days around radio broadcasts.

Radio, a daily ritual

The construction of KNX

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Herman J. Schultheis

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Michael Jackson, a well-known KNX, personality

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Larry Mantle, now in his 41st year hosting AirTalk, remembers being a kid and dreaming of what it might be like to be behind the mic at one of these radio stations.

“ I grew up with KNX," he said. “My dream job as a kid was to be an anchor on KNX or KFWB, the two local all-news radio stations, 'cause there was nothing like hosting AirTalk that even existed at that point.”

Mantle opened up the phone lines on a recent show to hear from his fellow SoCal radio lovers about the shows they miss and the memories they have. Here's what they had to say:

A love for radio, then and now  

A pilot of KMPC's traffic alert helicopter pictured with his daughter and grandson.

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Los Angeles Public Library

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A 1963 picture of Valley State College (now Los Angeles Valley College) preparing to launch KVCM

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Larry Leach

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Los Angeles Public Library

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“When you'd walk down Hollywood Boulevard where the station was, you could hear it playing as you went down the street,” said  Olivia in Glendale about KLAC 570 with Al Jarvis.

 Larry in Yorba Linda shouted out KBCA Jazz for its 24-hour jazz, saying “When I first moved out here in '68 from Phoenix, which had like an hour a week, it was a real wonder.”

 Mark in Glassell Park emailed that he loves KCRW’s Henry Rollins, writing, “I used to bristle at his unique DJ persona, but over time, I came to love him and his crazy eclectic playlists. I find his knowledge in history and punk rock fascinating. He's a gem and a legend."

"I'd like to give a shout-out to all the DJs working at KXLU, the college station at Loyola Marymount University, said  Jeremy in Culver City in an email. “That station's been on the air for nearly 60 years. I believe it's one of the best examples of what's possible with radio."

"KFWB and KRLA back in the day when they were rock music stations —  Dr. Demento, one of my favorite on-air personalities, also had eclectic music taste," said  Carrie in Desert Edge.

“ Dr. Demento was must listening when I was a kid in junior high school at Le Conte Junior High in Hollywood,” Mantle added. “Every Sunday night on KMET, we would make sure we were listening to Dr. Demento and his funny records.”

The question remains…

An 11-year-old winning a car in a KMPC contest in 1963.

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Listener support is vital to any radio station, and it’s clear KNX has many lifelong fans. AirTalk listeners highlighted their support for household KNX names over the decades like Bill Keene, Melinda Lee, Mike Roy and Jackie Olden.

As KNX makes changes, many are watching closely and thinking about the future of radio.

Listeners like Tommy in La Quinta are left wondering if the radio dial will be the same…

“I’m a hardcore listener, but I don't know about casual listeners [and] if they'll tune to AM,” he said.

After months of hand-wringing, Los Angeles and LA28 have come to a tentative agreement on how Olympics organizers will reimburse the city for its expenses for the 2028 Summer Games.

According to the deal, the private Olympic organizing committee will pay upfront for the estimated cost of services that are not eligible for federal reimbursement, like trash pick-up and traffic control. Under another proposal, the city would also be able to tap an LA28 contingency fund if it isn't fully repaid by the federal government for policing costs at Olympic venues.

The agreement is nearly nine months overdue and still needs approval by Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council.

The 2028 Olympics are intended to be privately financed, and an existing city agreement with LA28 states that the Olympics organizers, not L.A., will pay for extra costs for public services in support of the Games. But L.A. is the financial back-stop for the Olympics, meaning if LA28 goes in the red, taxpayers will pick up the bill.

Beyond that, the city services agreement presents another area where L.A. could incur additional unexpected expenses for hosting the Games. L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez warned LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover earlier this year that a bad deal could "bankrupt" the city.

Jacie Prieto Lopez, an LA28 spokesperson, and Paul Krekorian, who leads the city's office of major events, said in statements that the freshly inked agreement would help deliver a fiscally responsible Games.

"Mayor Bass’ priority is that the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games be fiscally responsible, protect taxpayers, and benefit Angelenos for decades to come. This agreement helps deliver that commitment," Krekorian said.

But the contract between the two parties doesn't fully resolve one of the biggest areas of financial risk for the city: the enormous cost of security for an event as extensive and high-profile as the summer Olympics and Paralympics.

Organizers are counting on the federal government to pay for public safety at Olympic venues that are considered part of a "national special security event." That includes costs for LAPD staffing. LA28 has not included security costs in its $7.1 billion budget — a fact that City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto criticized earlier this year.

The federal government has so far allocated $1 billion for security costs for the Olympics. Exactly where those federal funds will go has not yet been determined, and there's no guarantee they will cover all of L.A.'s policing costs.

To address this, city officials have also proposed an amendment to a 2021 agreement between the city and LA28. That amendment would establish that if L.A. is not reimbursed by the federal government for all its eligible expenses, it could dip into LA28's contingency fund of $270 million before the private organizing committee could use those funds for any legacy projects.

But that bucket of money will first be used for any costs that Olympics organizers still owe if they run out of revenue — meaning if the Olympics don't turn a profit, the city's access to that money will depend on how much is left for the taking.

Civil rights attorney Connie Rice, who has been tracking the city's negotiations with LA28, told LAist the agreement was a "PR document" not a deal. She pointed out that if the federal government does not pay up for security spending as expected, L.A. could be in trouble.

" It leaves the taxpayers with a GoFundMe strategy," she said.

The city services agreement lays the groundwork for more negotiations between LA28 and the city. Each venue will require its own agreement, to be negotiated by July 1, 2027. Venues in the city of L.A. include Dodger Stadium, the L.A. Convention Center, L.A. Memorial Coliseum and the Venice Beach Boardwalk.

The City Council's ad-hoc committee on the 2028 Games will meet Tuesday afternoon to vote on the agreement.