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Extra
Points: A Titanic Arena
Wed, Jun 16, 1999
It's tough for people in Los Angeles to notice
anything out of the ordinary.
They drive by the Hollywood sign each day on the way to
work and may peer into the car next to them to see Tom
Cruise taking his kids to school. Then there's the
occasional earthquake they mistake for bad suspension.
Most Angelinos haven't really noticed the large concrete
sarcophagus going up at the corners of the Harbor and
Santa Monica Freeways in downtown Los Angeles.
They'll get to know it pretty soon. It's where they're going
to have to go this Fall to see Kobe Bryant and Shaquille
O'Neal play.
The Staples Center is the new $320 million home for
Bryant, O'Neal and the Lakers, not to mention the Clippers
and hockey's Kings. With a hard hat atop my cranium and
the dust of construction under my feet, I got a look inside
the building that should open its doors to the general
public in September.
I stood in the Lakers locker room before most of the
Lakers ever will. The purple and gold paint on the walls
was still wet. One local television anchor remarked that he
could just stencil "Phil Jackson" on the door of the coach's
office with his finger as a welcome mat. The thought of
being caught with purple paint on his fingers probably
changed his mind.
As our guide strolled us through the building, he began to
sound more like he was giving a tour of Trump Tower than
a new sports arena.
"Here's the entrance to the luxury boxes, but it won't be
available to the general public," he said.
"Over here is going to be the club restaurant area. People
paying $10,000 will have use of it for the whole season.
But it won't be open to the general public."
"This is the premier seating lobby. Over there are the main
escalators where the general public can see it. But it's not
open to them."
"Not open to the general public." Translation: If you're not
making at least $50,000 a week and don't answer to the
last name of Gates, Murdoch or Eisner, go sit up there in
the rafters with the rest of the "general public."
I suddenly felt more like a writer for Fortune, or a nobleman
in medieval England looking down upon the serfs.
It just didn't feel right.
Even though the seats haven't been put in or a basketball
court, the Staples Center already looks to be exactly what
its builders intend it to be. The most state-of-the-art sports
arena in the country.
They're not kidding when they say they could fit two
Forums, the old home of the Lakers and Kings, inside it.
Without the escalators, you would need rope and grappling
hooks to get to some of the seats in here.
The scoreboard video screens alone will be nearly twice
the size of those in any other arena. The place also has
space being set aside for a television studio and one
restaurant that actually will be open to the general public.
For the amount of money they're spending in here, it had
better be the best. The Staples Center will end up costing
more than three times what it cost to build the Camden
Yards baseball stadium in Baltimore.
On the other hand, nearly all of the $300 million-plus
funding the building is private money. If there's anything
about sports in Los Angeles the rest of the country should
take heed of, its that the people here don't let their tax
dollars go toward the building of ballparks. They prefer for it
to go to things like schools and police instead.
In terms of the interior design, the place isn't all that
different from the other new arenas, like the United Center
and Gund Arena. The most glaring difference lies between
the lower and upper decks. There are three stories of
luxury boxes, for those who like to take the living room
with them to the game. The season ticket price here is
$100,000. I really didn't need the guide to tell me it wasn't
for the general public.
Above all of that was the top deck of seats. The people up
there will be watching basketball and hockey from six
stories up. Shaq isn't that tall.
You have to feel for those who are going to have to sit on
that top deck. That's the general public, you see.
A person's going to have to spend more that $30 for a
ticket to get any closer. Not a problem when you stock up
each week at Neiman-Marcus, but a major challenge when
$30 is half your grocery bill for a family of four.
I've always felt that one of the great things about going to
sporting events was the sense of community.
When fans cheer for their favorite heroes or your favorite
team, so is everyone else around you. It doesn't matter
what color they are, what religion they believe in or their
occupation. Most of all, cheering has always been a
pastime that wasn't defined by class.
At least, not until now.
The Staples Center is only the latest of the continuing
trend to separate the classes at sporting events.
Not that rich and poor separation hasn't been around. The
best seats have always come to those in the best income
bracket.
The difference is that now, all the good seats are being
taken away from the common fan as well. Whereas people
once used telescopes to look at stars in the sky, they'll
now have to use them to see the stars of sport.
Our tour concluded in the big boiler room of the arena.
Giant, circular generators and ice making equipment
dominated the room. It didn't take long for me to make an
obvious comparison. I wasn't standing in the boiler room of
an arena. I was standing in the boiler room of the Titanic.
The Staples Center isn't a sinking ship by any means. Not
only will the three big local arena teams play there, but
L.A. will fall in love with the avant-garde design of the
place. There's even a giant surfboard-looking thing on top.
It looks like L.A. The only thing that may make it look like
the Titanic is that Leonardo DiCaprio is a big Lakers fan
and will probably be at a couple of the games.
The Titanic comparison can be made in the way the
classes were separated on the ill-fated vessel. Most of
those who died aboard the ship were in the second and
third class compartments, which was separated from the
upper class by locked gates. The few lifeboats there ended
up being reserved for the upper class and the rich. The
locked gates were never opened.
In much the same way, there will be a lot of locked gates
for the lower class passengers at the Staples Center. On
my way to the press box this Fall, I shudder the thought of
having to hear a dad explain to their son that they can't go
the certain places in the building because they aren't rich
enough.
What the big bucks folks don't realize is the moment the
general public feels so shut out that they wouldn't follow
their team anymore, it won't matter how many Rockefellers
and Trumps you can get into the building.
Economists always talk about supply and demand. In
terms of sports, demand always starts with the general
public. A lack of demand from them is contagious. If the
fans aren't interested, the folks who make sports clothing
and paraphernalia won't be interested anymore. In turn, the
television networks won't be as eager to put their money
down when nobody is watching the games.
Sports will then be back to where it was at the turn of the
century, when the Titanic was afloat . Played in small
parks before crowds of five. That may sound far-fetched,
but so did the idea of $300 million sports arenas a few
years ago.
Without the third class passengers, the big new arenas
could prove to be sinking ships after all. |
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