STAPLES Center President Talks 20 Years of L.A. Sports
The iconic STAPLES Center in Los Angeles is celebrating its 20-year anniversary this week.
Founded in 1999, the arena has grown into a world-class facility — on par with New York’s Madison Square Garden and London’s O2 Arena — and is now home to four professional sports teams, including the NBA’s Lakers and Clippers.
Yet opening STAPLES two decades ago in the less-than-thriving downtown City of Angels was a risky bet.
“The success of STAPLES Center was never guaranteed,” said Lee Zeidman, the president of STAPLES Center and L.A. Live, an adjacent entertainment center. “Nobody went downtown. It rolled up its carpet and closed at 5 p.m.”
Today, STAPLES draws enormous crowds to its events, which range from basketball to hockey to the Grammy Awards. In total, the arena has held 5,000 events, welcomed 75 million fans, and sold over 20 million beers.
The arena is also gearing up for a major event in the sports world next week: the NBA’s October 22 opening night matchup between the teams that call it home: the Lakers and the Clippers.
“We will be the center of the NBA universe,” said Zeidman, who was the arena's first full-time employee 20 years ago. “It is one of the most anticipated opening night games in the history of the NBA."
This November, Philips Norelco is partnering with Movember® in the United States and Canada to urge men to tackle health issues that are right under their noses. Brett Bardsley, Category Leader, Philips Grooming & Beauty, and Dr. Jake Taylor MD, MPH, Chief Urology Resident at NYU Langone Health, join None of the Above to break down how this partnership is more than just growing & grooming a Mo all month long, what men should know about their own mental and physical well-being, and the impact Philips continues to have as a global health technology company supporting men’s health programming and delivering meaningful innovations.
Learn more about how to get involved at Philips.com/Movember
Food delivery giant DoorDash is acquiring European food delivery company Wolt. The all-stock deal is valued at $8.1 billion and is expected to close in the first half of 2022. The companies say they share a mission to build a global delivery platform. Gerber Kawasaki investment advisor Eva Agi joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss what the deal means for Doordash, as well as its customers and investors.
Identity verification startup Socure recently raised $450 million dollars in a series E round, bringing the company's valuation to $4.5 billion. Socure says it is now the highest-valued private company in the identity verification space, and that the funds will be used to accelerate its mission to verify 100% of good identities and eliminate identity fraud across all industries. Socure Founder and CEO Johnny Ayers joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Didi Hirsch CEO Jon Goldfinger and actor Sarah Gilman join Cheddar News in support of Didi Hirsch's social media campaign, which aims to bring awareness to its upcoming event, Alive Together: Uniting to Prevent Suicide.
Attorney Michael Burg joined Cheddar's Jill Wagner to give more insight into the legal fallout of Travis Scott's deadly Astroworld festival, where at least eight people died and dozens more were injured.
The Biden Administration has issued a new order aimed at all federal agencies which would order them to patch hundreds of cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Chief Evangelist at Intrusion Gary Davis and Chief Security Advisor at SentinelOne Morgan Wright, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
The electric vehicle space is about to see a whole new shift in its market particularly in Taxi Industry. Ride-Hailing apps like Uber and Lyft though could be left behind from this era since they cannot force their drivers to drive specific cars. Executive Analyst from ISeeCars.Com, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
