Billboard ads and stadium taxes head to Inglewood voters this November

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Inglewood voters will weigh in on a pair of ballot initiatives this November that could curtail video billboard advertising and raise taxes on tickets to the city’s stadiums. 

The Inglewood City Council voted 4-0 on Tuesday to send each of the initiatives to the ballot after city staff found each had gathered the required amount of signatures — or more than 10% of the city’s 64,416 voters. Councilmember Dionne Faulk was absent from the afternoon meeting. 

The implications of these initiatives on daily life in Inglewood are real. Each could change how the city engages with stadium visitors and have a multi-million dollar impact on the city’s revenue streams.

Both of the initiatives are offshoots of the ongoing fight over Inglewood’s fleet of video billboards and each has heavy financial backing from a corporate sponsor.

Mayor James Butts told The LA Local that a third initiative, proposing a cap on fees for commercial parking lots, did not gather enough signatures to make it to the ballot.

Here’s what the ticket tax initiative would change

The city pulls in millions of dollars every year through taxes on tickets to SoFi Stadium concerts and games. But the city’s current tax rules put a cap on that revenue.

The proposed admissions tax measure would remove the annual cap. Inglewood currently slaps a 10% tax on tickets to venues with more than 22,000 seats. The city’s only venue that large is SoFi Stadium, which fits more than 70,000. 

The annual cap on admissions tax revenue started at $15 million in 2015 and increases with inflation each year. Inglewood is set to pull in an estimated $21.7 million from the admissions tax this fiscal year, according to budget documents, accounting for almost 9% of the city’s total general fund revenue. 

On top of removing the cap, the initiative would add a new 2.5% ticket tax for venues that have between 10,000 and 22,000 seats.

Both the Intuit Dome and Kia Forum fit that description, but city staff wrote in a report that the new 2.5% charge would not immediately apply to the Kia Forum, which has a development agreement with the city running until 2041. 

Read the full initiative here.

Just under 7,200 verified Inglewood voters signed petitions to support the initiative, according to city records. 

Bishop Johnny Young of Miracle Temple Church of God Pentecostal, one of the Inglewood locals who supports the initiative, said during the Tuesday meeting that the stadiums need to pay their fair share for the costs Inglewood incurs from stadium visitors. 

“The stadium is built and the crowds have come,” Young said. “But when the lights dim, I am left with a quiet question: Who is actually carrying the costs for this glory?”

WOW Media, the company that runs most of Inglewood’s video billboards, has thrown at least $400,000 into campaigns for the admissions tax initiative and the failed parking initiative, according to finance records that run through March 31. 

The LA Local has reached out to WOW Media, who did not return a request for comment.

John Shallman, a consultant for the competing, stadium-funded campaign committee Neighbors for Beautiful Inglewood, argued that increased admissions taxes could negatively hit Inglewood’s economy.

“When a government increases costs, (venues) have to absorb, pass to consumers or reduce expenses,” Shallman said.

Here’s what the billboard initiative would change

Inglewood has seen dozens of video billboards and kiosks sprout up along its main roads over the last decade, drawing the ire of some locals who have likened the rows of screens to a mini-Vegas.

The proposed billboard initiative would ban commercial advertising across a large chunk of those billboards, many of which are built on city land. 

Proponents argue the initiative would rid Inglewood of “billboard blight,” but the city says it would take a chunk out of the city’s revenue. Since 2018, the billboards have pulled in between $1.6 million and $7.5 million a year in revenue for the city. 

And, WOW is scheduled to roll out more of its new twisting sidewalk screens in the coming months. 

Diane Sambrano, an Inglewood local, said she doesn’t think the billboards are worth the money they bring the city.

“I’d kinda like them all rubbed out,” Sambrano said. “We misuse the money anyway.”

More than a dozen people gave public comments at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, laying out largely similar arguments against the initiative and asking council members to send it before voters instead of outright approving it.

“I cannot stand by and watch this council strip millions of dollars from our community just to appease billionaires, stadium developers,” Bishop Young said. “Our partnership with WOW Media generates concrete revenue.”

Read the full initiative here.

Neighbors for Beautiful Inglewood, the main campaign behind the initiative, was started with $1 million in contributions from the city’s stadiums and arenas, according to campaign finance records running through March 31.

Shallman, the campaign’s adviser, said that the billboard initiative is a case of corporate interests aligning with those of Inglewood locals.

“From a pure citizen perspective, they don’t want these billboards,” he said. “Ultimately, the voters decide how their public space is used.”

Shallman contended that the stadiums have done significantly more for Inglewood residents than WOW by providing local jobs and a larger chunk of tax dollars.

“We’ll put that record against the billboard company,” he said. “That’s really the choice here. It’s billboard companies or the sports and entertainment venues.” 

Even if the initiative is approved by voters, Butts told The LA Local that city officials plan to fight it in court. The city filed a lawsuit in March to block the initiative from the ballot, arguing that it was a product of “avaricious puppeteering” by SoFi Stadium owner Stan Kroenke.

That lawsuit is ongoing. Butts said any order to stop the initiative is most likely to come after the Nov. 3 election.