Fifteen years ago, Inglewood was on the brink of disaster. In 2011, the unemployment rate was a staggering 17%. The city had a BBB-minus bond rating and would be cash bankrupt and unable to make payroll come September.

Today, though, the city is set to print an untold amount of money as it hosts eight World Cup matches beginning Friday, a Super Bowl in 2027, and major events like swimming and basketball in the 2028 Olympics.

How exactly did it get from that to this?

Article continues below this ad

Many might point to recent development in the area — including the stadiums and the massive, roughly 300-acre Hollywood Park mixed-use complex — but the city’s turnaround actually started long before SoFi Stadium opened its doors in 2020.

According to Mayor James T. Butts Jr., who took office in 2011, it wasn’t shiny new developments like SoFi Stadium or the Intuit Dome that saved the city but instead a legendary property left for dead by the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Kings.

Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr. smiles during the opening of the LAX/Metro Transit Center rail and bus public transportation station at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles on June 6, 2025. 

“The first week I was in office, I got in touch with Madison Square Garden and got into a yearlong discussion with them about purchasing the Forum, which had been occupied by a church after the Kings and Lakers left to go to the Staples Center,” Butts said. “It had been vacant for quite some time.”

Article continues below this ad

The Madison Square Garden Co. bought the Kia Forum in 2012 for $23.5 million and reopened it two years later after a $50 million investment in renovations and help from Inglewood, which took out an $18 million commercial rehabilitation loan.

The Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on Nov. 6, 2023.

“People said, ‘No one will come to concerts and events at the Forum again because of the crime, the gangs, the poverty,’” Butts said. “Within two years, it was the No. 1 concert venue in California, No. 2 in the country behind Madison Square Garden and No. 3 in the world.”

Article continues below this ad

The Forum was bought by Clippers owner Steve Ballmer in 2020 for $400 million.

“This part of the story always gets lost because people fast-forward to 2020,” Butts said. “But we weren’t going to be here in 2020.”

It’s just one of the moves Butts and the city made to bring Inglewood back from the brink of disaster — and turn it into the thriving destination it is today.

Another one of Butts’ major projects was to woo an NFL team to Inglewood — and that woo was answered by real estate mogul Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke, who set out to build a stadium on a roughly 300-acre Hollywood Park mixed-use development site.

Article continues below this ad

From the get-go, Butts ensured that ancillary stadium costs didn’t sink the city. According to Urban Land, “Inglewood did not invest any upfront tax dollars into the project and was not obligated to reimburse........

© SFGate