Staples Center

Staples Center is a multipurpose sports arena in downtown Los Angeles, California at the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment District. It is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex. Staples Center was financed privately at a cost of $375 million USD and is named for the Staples office-supply company, one of the center’s corporate sponsors that paid for naming rights.

Seating Capacity: Basketball: 18,997, Hockey: 18,118, Concerts: 20,000
Opened: October 17, 1999
Owner: L.A. Arena Co., Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG)
Operator: L.A. Arena Co., Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG)
Construction cost: $375 million USD
Architect: NBBJ
Location: 1111 S. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, California 90015

Staples Center opened on October 17, 1999, and immediately won recognition, becoming a two-time winner of the PollStar-CIC Arena of the Year award. It has gained fame as the home of the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers of the NBA, the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL, and the Los Angeles Avengers of the AFL. It is the only arena that is home to five professional sports franchises.

There are a total of 12 locker and dressing rooms, including team-specific locker rooms for the Lakers, Clippers, and Kings. There are a series of meeting rooms in the arena, including the Bank of America conference area on the suite level and additional rooms in the attached, three-story office tower. There are extensive hospitality facilities, including a magnificent arena restaurant and club space on the suite level at one end of the arena, overlooking the arena floor.

Spectator amenities include a full-service ticket window, 1,200 television monitors throughout the facility, 23 refreshment stands spread among the arena’s five concourses, as well as the Fox Sports SkyBox restaurant on the main plaza, the Royal Room on main concourse, the Arena Club and Grand Reserve Club above the premier seating level, and the outdoor City View Grille, offering a look at the downtown skyline. There is also a TeamLA store on the plaza level, accessible from outside the arena, and offers a complete array of apparel and merchandise for the arena’s resident teams and top events. Event presentation is augmented by a $2 million specialty lighting package, a $1.5 million Bose sound system, a Mitsubishi eight-sided, center-court scoreboard and videoboard, as well as a fascia board along the upper seating level, provided by Daktronics.

Staples Center seats up to 20,000 for concerts, 18,997 for basketball, and 18,118 for hockey and arena football. Two-thirds of the arena’s seating, including 2,500 club seats, are in the lower bowl, and there are 160 luxury suites, including 15 event suites, on three levels between the lower and upper bowls. The arena’s attendance record is held by WWE WrestleMania 21 with a crowd of 20,193 set on April 3, 2005.

Although Staples Center is already a Los Angeles icon, it is only a part of a much larger 4-million ft² development by Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) adjoining the Staples Center and the Los Angeles Convention Center. A downtown Los Angeles sports and entertainment destination, known as L.A. Live, broke ground on September 15, 2005. L.A. Live is designed to offer entertainment, retail and residential programming in the downtown Los Angeles area.

The multi-faceted entertainment destination will feature entertainment venues, restaurants, retail commercial and residential spaces, television and radio broadcast studios, and concert spaces. Highlights of the district will include a four star, 1,100 room convention center headquarters hotel, a 40,000 ft² outdoor plaza, an ESPN broadcast and restaurant facility, Regal Theatres, as well as Club Nokia, the Nokia Theatre Los Angeles, and Nokia Plaza.

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Staples Center website
Staples Center wikipedia entry
Los Angeles Lakers website
Club Lakers Fansite
Lakers Talk Fansite
Los Angeles Clippers website
ClipperBlog Fansite
Los Angeles Kings website
Online Kingdom Fansite
Los Angeles Sparks website

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