The Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles, California is home to both the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers basketball teams and was opened in 1999, with a seating capacity of about 19,000 spectators.
It is a multi-purpose complex that is also used for music concerts, ice hockey, boxing as well as basketball. The dimensions of the arena are 950,000 square feet (88,257.9 m2) of total space, with a 94-foot (28.7 meters) by 200-foot (61 meters) arena floor. It is 150 feet (45.7 meters) tall. The arena seats up to 19,067 for basketball although this varies for other events that occur due to the change in the playing area. Here are some of the major events that take place at this venue.
1. Music Events
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were the first musicians to play at the venue when it was opened in 1999 and since then, it has been a major location for well-known bands and musicians to play at. Taylor Swift has performed 16 sell-out shows at the Staples Center and the Michael Jackson memorial service was held there in 2009. The Dave Matthews Band played there twice in 2008 and Mexican musicians Gloria Trevi and Alejandra Guzmán played two sellout shows at the arena in 2017.
The Grammys have been held at Staples Stadium since 2000 except for a few years due to unforeseen circumstances.
2. Sporting Events
The Staples Center is host to many important sporting events and many LA teams call the Staples Center their home. The NHL Los Angeles Kings, NBA teams LA Clippers and the LA Lakers all consider this venue their home turf. The Stanley Cup was hosted at the Staples Center for the first time in 2012 while the LA Lakers have hosted many finals at the venue, winning most of them, probably due to home-ground advantage.
If you want to bet on NBA games, then these teams are your best option if they are playing there. The WNBA has also hosted finals at Staples Center in addition to a multitude of other sporting events including figure skating championships, UFC, and the Summer X Games which have all been held there as well.
3. Pro Wrestling
A major spectator sport in the United States is wrestling and Staples Center has been host to both Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown shows. Other WWE events have been held at the Center including WrestleMania 21, SummerSlam, No Mercy, and NXT Takeover: WarGames. So if you are into the pro wrestling scene, the Staples Center is the place to go to get your wrestling fix. With such a large capacity, the Staples Center is the perfect location for a packed-out event and the USA is the place to experience the entire show that is pro-wrestling.
It is easy to think of a stadium such as the Staples Center to be just for one major sport, but the truth is that the venue holds a lot of capacity for all different kinds of sporting and music events. It is well worth checking out if you are in Los Angeles anytime soon. Even if you aren’t attending an event the sheer size and impressiveness of the Center as a building are enough to hold you in awe.
