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."
Instagram is putting a hold on the development of Instagram kids, geared towards children under 13, so it can address concerns about the vulnerability of younger users.
All the news you Need2Know for Monday, September 27, 2021.
All the news you Need2Know for Friday, September 24, 2021.
Neopets are making a new kind of comeback, this time in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Cheddar recs "Bob's Burgers," "The Great North," "Doom Patrol," "Cry Macho," and "Designated Survivor."
Jill and Carlo break down the latest on the booster debate, what's happening at the southern Texas border, Biden's attempts to break a Dem logjam over his economic agenda, and high schoolers get a lesson in labor shortages.
Facebook's semi-independent oversight board says it will review the company's "XCheck," or cross check system following an investigation by The Wall Street Journal into the use of an internal system that has exempted high-profile users from some or all of its rules.
Jill and Carlo debrief Biden's big UN speech, the troubling rise of antisemitism on campus, the sad confirmation that Gabby Petito was murdered and Google doubles down on a return to office.
The FBI says a county coroner has confirmed that human remains found in remote northern Wyoming along the border of Grand Teton National Park are those of 22-year-old Gabby Petito.
COVID-19 has now killed about as many Americans as the 1918-19 Spanish flu pandemic did — approximately 675,000.
