Inglewood, California is no stranger to sports temples. The Kia Forum was once home of the Los Angeles Lakers and adjacent was Hollywood Park, a racetrack complex that first opened in the 1930s.
Now it is home to Stan Kroenke’s SoFi Stadium and Steve Ballmer’s Intuit Dome. But with the prevalence of major sports and entertainment events inside multi-billion dollar venues comes a local traffic nightmare, making life hard for business owners.
“Holly Park Plaza has been here for over 50 years,” said Carol Powell Lexing, a civil rights attorney. “It was the first shopping center in Inglewood. So it’s a staple here in the community. It’s the heart of the community. It is Inglewood.”
But Black and Latino business owners in the plaza, walking distance from SoFi and Intuit, say they’re struggling as a result of car congestion due to major sporting and entertainment events across the street.
“We’re struggling to hold on to pay these bills. We’re struggling daily,” said Jay Allen, owner of JAMZ Creamery for the past decade. “And like they all say, these people, billionaires, they’ve done nothing to include us.”
Many business owners are frustrated with the lack of local partnership from billionaire investors. They say the city and the venue owners are not doing enough to protect businesses that have spent more than a decade in Inglewood.
Owner of Sweet Red Peach, Karolyn Summer, said her business made less than $600 when SoFi Stadium hosted Super Bowl LVI in 2022.
“On that day, it should have been prosperous,” Summer said. “But the city blocked off the street, told everybody, ‘do not come on Prairie [Avenue] unless you’re attending the game.’”
Since the Clippers began their 82-game season in the Intuit Dome, Sweet Red Peach has lost nearly $40,000 in one month, she said. Many owners blame too many cars and too few pedestrians, an outlook that isn’t expected to improve any time soon.
Sundays bring Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers games. SoFi stadium will host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Super Bowl LXI in 2027 and the Olympic Games the following year.
Jasmine Summer, owner of the Orleans and York Deli, has been on Inglewood for 10 years. She said they’re down 40% due to a lack of delivery platform revenue.
“Nobody wants to come, pick up food, deliver it and deal with all this traffic,” Summer said.
According to many of the business owners at today’s press conference, customers are being diverted away from nearby streets so that they’re not caught up in game day traffic. But in Inglewood, game day is everyday.
“The easy solution would be to make the businesses a part of the partnership,” Lexing said. “Get [businesses] involved in the Intuit, get them involved in the Sofi, get the community involved. That’s what was sold to the owners when, in fact, it is just the opposite. It basically pushed them out, and now the businesses are struggling.”
Inglewood is primarily African American and Latino. Just over 100,000 people live in the city. Business owners say they were promised economic prosperity.
As the city has welcomed new franchises eager to call Inglewood home, business owners hope to stay in the city they call home, too.