Staples Center

Staples Center. . , At Home in Los Angeles, At Last , The opening of the Staples Center in 1999 meant that Los Angeles' home teams really were its home teams. , For years, teams with Los Angeles in their names - the Lakers basketball team and the Kings hockey team - had actually hit the court, and the ice, in the nearby city of Inglewood. The Staples Center changed all that. , The oval-shaped arena in downtown is always brightly illuminated on the nights it hosts a concert or sporting event. It has also welcomed conventions that needed newer and bigger spaces than the old halls could provide. With the 1971 convention center alongside it, Staples also solved another problem of long standing: what to do with all the conventioneers who flocked to Los Angeles, but found no venue big enough to hold them all. , In 2000, a year after the Staples Center opened, Los Angeles hosted its first political nominating convention in 40 years: the Democratic National Convention. The convention nominated Al Gore, who won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote. The nominee of the city's first national political convention, the 1960 Democratic convention, was Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy, who won what was then the closest "squeaker" election in modern times., The office supply chain Staples won the "naming rights" to the arena, bidding a reported $100 million in exchange for 20 years of top billing - making itself a "staple" in the region's diet of civic events. , A Tall Order - Really Tall - Filled At Last , The Lakers and the Clippers, who migrated north from San Diego, regularly draw film stars to the sideline seats. Actor Jack Nicholson followed his team from Inglewood to a floor seat in Staples Center, wearing his trademark sunglasses from tip-off to final buzzer. For the inaugural season, front-row seats were selling at more than $1,000 each - not per season, but per game. , The Lakers have also honored their real heroes of the court. Earvin "Magic" Johnson never played on the Staples boards, but his exceptional career is commemorated there with a bronze statue 17 feet high - a more than twice-lifesize representation of the 6'9" superstar. It was crafted by Israeli sculptor Omri Amrany, whose works include memorial statues to the soldiers of World Wars I and II., Johnson himself unveiled it in 2004, pulling away a Lakers-purple cover on the spot on Star Plaza, near the corner of Figueroa Street and Chick Hearn Court. The street was named for a man who became a sports legend without shooting a professional basket: broadcaster Chick Hearn, who broadcast 3,338 consecutive Lakers games over nearly 40 years. , The year after the arena opened came the first Lakers' championship in a dozen years, and the first in the new center. Some dozens among the thousands of fans celebrated in the streets. The Lakers repeated the feat, winning three consecutive championships. , Skybox Seats and Music Box Tunes , The official opening act for Staples Center in October 1999 was rocker Bruce Springsteen - but unofficially, the facility opened the night before with a more sedate audience and performance: a charity gala with Natalie Cole and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Springsteen would be followed by such performers as the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and Cher. The arena has since become the most successful venue in the nation, filling its seats an astounding 240 days per year. , Staples Center has also hosted the Grammy and Latin Grammy awards, and when singer/songwriter Ray Charles died in 2004, thousands of fans filed past his coffin in the nearby Los Angeles Convention Center. Three months later fans celebrated Charles' life and music at the Staples Center with a tribute concert featuring music from Stevie Wonder, B.B. King, Quincy Jones and Elton John, and tributes from Morgan Freeman and Tom Cruise.