It's a modern sports staple
Lakers' home office thriving
LOS ANGELES - In the days before naming rights, a very rich person involved with sports wanted to build the Staples Center. Jack Kent Cooke could not get the deal done, though. So he went outside the city with his luxurious Forum, the design and name inspired by the Romans.
While the Inglewood empire thrived, the Kings and Lakers maximizing the circus, LA's downtown declined.
Then another very rich person involved with sports decided to construct a Forum downtown. Only Phil Anschutz's building would be more pragmatic and less romantic than Cooke's and owe much more to up-to-date technology than to ancient civilizations.
Staples Center, which is playing host to the Lakers and Celtics in the NBA Finals this week, has been a groundbreaker in entertainment and sports. It opened with a bang in 1999, with a Bruce Springsteen concert, and has been making loud noises ever since.
Anschutz Entertainment Group, which runs Staples Center and several other venues, plus professional teams, figures to carry on the legacy of its founder.
"We got the Grammies and the Democratic National Convention based on a hole in the ground," said Staples Center executive Lee Zeidman yesterday. "It took a lot of hard work and some great selling. We would parade people around and show them a hole in the ground and some models and take them through the plans, show them what we were going to do.
"We told them we could convert from hockey to basketball in 2 1/2 hours, even though we had no idea if we could do it. But that's what we were selling to people."
Whether a hard sell or soft sell, the technique worked. The Kings, Lakers, and Clippers moved in. And the public followed; about 4 million attend events at Staples Center annually.
"There are not many dark days, I'll tell you that," Zeidman said. "The place never sleeps. We are a 24/7 operation. We designed it this way. Other buildings, in Minneapolis and San Antonio, were built for basketball, but we built this as a true multipurpose facility.
"We can do hockey and basketball and concerts on the same day, based on the design of the building. Some places did doubleheaders once in a while, but we do them consistently."
The last time the Celtics and Lakers met for the NBA title, games were played in Boston Garden, a 1920s construction, and the Forum, which earned the nickname "Fabulous" through the promotional ways of Jerry Buss, a real estate magnate who bought out Cooke.
Both courts were on the way out, though the Forum, like the original Roman one in its glory days, seemed a long way from declining.
The Lakers' home these days makes few references to anything classical, true to office-supply store efficiency. Everything you see is colorful and/or futuristic, in keeping with the source of Anschutz's riches - modern communication systems.
The Forum continues to book entertainment and the LA Memorial Coliseum proudly displays its heritage. But both are in danger of becoming obsolete as downtown LA takes over, and the success of Staples Center inspires a move for a stadium to attract an NFL franchise.
"The Forum Club was the most exciting place to be after games," Zeidman said. "And the old Senate Seats at the Forum, when they were started by Jerry Buss, they were the grandfather of today's club and premium seats.
"I worked at the Forum from 1988-98 and I never came downtown before the Staples Center. This was the beginning of a revitalization of downtown LA."
And this is just the start. No matter how the Lakers fare,
Staples Center is 1 million square feet. But the entire complex, a $2.5 billion deal named L.A. LIVE, is expanding to 4 million square feet. It will encompass an entertainment/residential area with two hotels, a 224-unit condominium tower, two performance theaters, a 14-screen cinema, and an ESPN broadcast center.
"It used to be tough convincing fans that you have more at Staples Center than at the Fabulous Forum," Zeidman said. "But we have a great design, which allows us to do all of this night in and night out; the best equipment - we spend $1 million-$3 million a year to make sure our technology is fresh; people love working here; and, our prime tenants win championships."
Frank Dell'Apa can be reached at f_dellapa@globe.com. 