Crypto.com Arena to get important upgrades, renovations in the next 2 years
The updates to Crypto.com Arena will include a new “Tunnel Club” that allows fans to see players as they enter the field.
The Los Angeles Lakers’ home arena will undergo significant changes over the next two years.
Crypto.com Arena officials announced Monday that they plan to make a “nine-figure investment” to improve the stadium that has served as home to the Lakers, LA Clippers, WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks and NHL’s Los Angeles Kings since it opened in 1999.
The renovations will include things like new LED screens and scoreboards, upgrades to the concourse levels and improvements to in-arena dining as well as a “refresh” of the locker rooms for the Lakers, Kings and Sparks.
The legacy continues✨ take a look at the new @cryptocomarena and enter the future 🏟 pic.twitter.com/my9LgSvwPY
— Crypto.com (@cryptocom) 22 August 2022
The legacy continues✨ Take an inside look at the new Arena and step into the future 🏟 pic.twitter.com/P9zIUSD1Xg
— Crypto.com Arena (@cryptocomarena) 22 August 2022
Perhaps the most notable changes are plans to connect the LA Live area to the Crypto.com Arena with an outdoor gathering space. According to the Los Angeles Times’ David Wharton, this would mean eliminating the street between the arena and LA Live to create an avenue, as well as a glass-walled club—known as the “Tunnel Club”—in the arena so patrons can watch players walk out of the wardrobe.
“For the past two decades, the Lakers and AEG have shared a vision to provide a first-class experience to every guest who enters Crypto.com Arena and LA LIVE’s Xbox Plaza,” Lakers president of business operations Tim Harris said in a statement Monday. “Competing nightly in front of the most passionate fans in the NBA in one of the most iconic arenas in the world is something our organization is incredibly proud of. This investment in expansive improvements and upgrades cements the downtown Los Angeles arena as the pinnacle of entertainment for decades to come.”
The various projects are expected to be completed by the fall of 2024, arena officials said, with several of the improvements ready for the 2022-23 NBA and NHL seasons.
Downtown Los Angeles, home of the NBA’s Lakers and Clippers, the NHL’s Kings and the WNBA’s Sparks, changed its name last year after 22 years of operation as the Staples Center. The 20,000-seat arena has been the Staples Center since it opened in October 1999, with the naming rights owned by the American office supplies company under a 20-year deal.
Along with its sports tenants, the arena has hosted 19 Grammy Awards ceremonies, three NBA All-Star Games, two NHL All-Star Games and countless high-profile concerts, performances and important public events, including memorials for Michael Jackson, Nipsey Hussle and Kobe Bryant .
The Lakers have won six NBA championships during their tenure in the hollow arena, including three straight in the first three years of operation. Banners commemorating the Lakers’ 17 NBA titles hang high on the walls above the playing floor, providing what may be the most distinctive interior in the building.
The Sparks have won three WNBA titles while at Staples Center, and the Kings won their first two Stanley Cup championships there in 2012 and 2014, doing both on home ice.
Clippers will be short hours at Crypto.com Arena. They are scheduled to open owner Steve Ballmer’s $1 billion, 18,000-seat Intuit Dome in Inglewood in 2024 when their Staples Center lease expires. The construction of that arena is going well starting this summer.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
