Staples Center opened on October 17, 1999, and became a two-time winner of the Pollstar-CIC Arena of the Year award soon after. It is home to the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers of the NBA, the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL, and the Los Angeles Avengers of the AFL. It is the only arena that is home to five professional sports franchises.
The arena is host to 250 events and nearly 4,000,000 visitors a year. Since its opening day, Staples Center has hosted the 2000 Democratic National Convention, the 2002 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, the 2002 NHL All-Star game, the 2004 NBA All-Star Game, the 2004 Pacific Ten Conference Basketball Championships, the WTA Tour Championships from 2002 to 2005, the first ever Latin Grammy Awards in 2000, the annual Grammy Awards since 2000 with the exception of 2003, the Pacific Ten Conference Men's Basketball Tournament since 2002, the Summer X Games indoor competitions since 2003, the UFC 60 pay per view event, as well as numerous Concerts and HBO Championship Boxing matches.[2] In addition to hosting the attendance record setting WrestleMania 21 in 2005, Staples Center has also hosted WWE Unforgiven in 2002, WWE Judgment Day in 2004, and WWE No Way Out in 2007 as well as other WWE events.
There are a total of twelve locker and dressing rooms, including team-specific locker rooms for the Lakers, Clippers, and Kings. There are a series of meeting rooms in the arena, including the Bank of America conference area on the suite level and additional rooms in the attached, three-story office tower. There are extensive hospitality facilities, including a restaurant and club space on the suite level at one end of the arena, overlooking the arena floor.
The arena features a full-service ticket window, 1,200 television monitors throughout the facility, 23 refreshment stands spread among the arena's five concourses, as well as the Fox Sports SkyBox restaurant on the main plaza, the Royal Room on main concourse, the Arena Club and Grand Reserve Club above the premier seating level, a TeamLA store on the plaza level accessible from outside the arena, and the outdoor City View Grille. The arena also features a $2 million specialty lighting package, a $1.5 million Bose sound system, a Mitsubishi eight-sided, center-court scoreboard and videoboard, as well as a Daktronics fascia board along the upper seating level.
