Staples Center Hosts Three Playoff Series, Unfortunately

Lakers will host OK City Thunder in Round 2

Clippers and Grizzlies Battle At Staples

Last row for a Kings playoff game, is it worth going?

I hate the Staples Center.  It should be called the Stupor Center, or Soulless Center.  It has the aura of a private golf club where only the wealthy are entertained.  The Occupy Wall Street slackers picked the wrong place to stage their protest against the wealthy.  At a typical Staples Center event 99% of the crowd are the 1 percenters everyone hates.  The other 1% of the crowd probably won their tickets on the radio.  If that happened to me I wouldn't go, not even with free tickets.  They are going to be in the upper deck, perhaps the worst seats in any arena in the USA.  You are so far away you need a telescope, forget the binoculars.  The upper level is so high each seat comes with an oxygen mask.  The pay phones in the top level have a different area code than the ones on the bottom.

I've been to this big barn and had some good times to be sure.  I was there opening night Oct. 17, 1999 for the ribbon-cutting Bruce Springsteen show.  The one where he had to ask people to come out of their luxury boxes to watch the show.  Since that engagement Bruce has never returned, opting to play the decrepit Sports Arena just a few miles away in the bad part of town.  I had comp tickets in the upper level, so far away I needed someone to show me where to find the stage.  I snuck down to the floor which was the only way I could enjoy the Boss and the E Street Band.  Since then I've turned down free seats in the top level.  its just not worth going.  The reason is those damn luxury boxes.  I understand the need for a row of them to generate extra revenue, but the three tiers of luxury suites is unprecedented in American sports arenas.

I am not whining about the rich people who sit in those boxes.  I've sat there a few times and its nice to be pampered.  Its just that their presence creates such a huge divide between the "lower bowl" seats and the upper deck that it reminds me of ancient Rome.  There's no middle ground at the Staples Center.  You either have great seats or crappy ones.  The escalator taking you to the top level doesn't even stop at the lower levels.  You rise past glimpses of sumptuous buffets and silver dessert carts that you'll never taste or even smell.  In the past such extravagance was behind closed doors.  Now its thrust in your face before the escalator dumps you above the ozone layer in the top deck.

The Pac 12 basketball tournament is moving from Staples Center to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas where there's truly not a bad seat in the house.  I will make the 300 mile drive to root for UCLA.  I live 20 miles from the Staples Center but have never been to the tournament at Staples.  That place is the antithesis of what college basketball is all about.  Judging by the empty seats for most of the games there are others who agree with me.

So the fact that the Lakers, Clippers and Kings are in the playoffs at the same time leaves me with mixed feelings.  There will be six games played at Staples Center in four days.  Obviously a good thing for the people who work there and the businesses in downtown L.A.  The building will be filled with people who have enough money to afford expensive playoff tickets.  Even the upper deck will be filled.  I don't know why.