The Los Angeles Clippers could be moving out of downtown’s Staples Center once their current lease expires in June 2024, ESPN reported Wednesday.

Sources familiar with the matter told ESPN that Steve Ballmer, who purchased the Clippers in 2014 for $2 billion, is actively seeking potential sites for a new arena – with the Westside in particular catching Ballmer’s attention.

The Clippers have called the Staples Center home since 1999, along with the Los Angeles Lakers and the National Hockey League’s Los Angeles Kings. ESPN reported that as third tenants, the Clippers are entitled to a smaller share of proceeds generated from suites and club seats than the arena’s two other tenants.

A new facility would provide in-house revenue-generating opportunities for Ballmer and the Clippers while also opening up the possibility for Ballmer to develop the surrounding area, according to ESPN.

A 2003 analysis commissioned by the Los Angeles City Controller on the Staples Center, which opened in 1999 and cost $375 million to build, found that economic activity in Inglewood substantially increased when the Lakers left The Forum to head downtown.

The report also noted that economic activity in the Staples Center’s neighborhood of South Park greatly increased in the years following the arena’s opening, with upscale restaurants, hotels, and residents deriving the most economic benefit from the project, which is owned by downtown-based Anschutz Entertainment Group.

Staff reporter Jonathan Ponciano can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @jon_ponciano.