Crypto.com Arena
Some buildings accumulate history slowly. Crypto.com Arena, which opened as Staples Center on October 17, 1999, accumulated it at a rate that seems almost unfair. In its first quarter century, the arena housed the Lakers dynasty, the memorial for the most famous entertainer in the world, the final chapter of one of basketball's most singular careers, and a naming rights deal that broke every record that had come before it.
Night One
The first performer at Staples Center was Bruce Springsteen, who played the arena's inaugural concert in October 1999. The arena had been built in forty-eight months at a cost of $375 million, entirely privately financed—a point the developers emphasized, since Los Angeles had recently seen the publicly subsidized Forum in Inglewood and the controversies that came with it.
The home teams moved in immediately: the Lakers and Clippers of the NBA, the Kings of the NHL, the Sparks of the WNBA. The building was designed with multiple basketball configurations and an ice rink beneath the floor, making transitions between events technically complex but commercially essential.
81 Points
On January 22, 2006, Kobe Bryant scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors. It remains the second-highest single-game scoring performance in NBA history, behind only Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game in 1962. Bryant scored 55 of those points in the second half. The crowd at Staples Center that night understood they were watching something that wouldn't happen again.
Bryant won five NBA championships playing in the building he called home, the last three of them in 2009, 2010, and a missed stretch before a 2016 retirement game in which he scored 60 points. No player was more identified with a single arena in his generation.
The Ceremonies
Michael Jackson's public memorial service was held at Staples Center on July 7, 2009, drawing an estimated 17,500 people inside the arena and millions watching around the world. Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder, and Jennifer Hudson performed. Jackson's daughter Paris spoke publicly for the first time. The event had the weight of a state funeral.
On February 24, 2020, ten days after Kobe Bryant's death in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, a public memorial drew 20,000 people. The date—2/24—honored Bryant's jersey numbers, 24 and 2 (the number worn by his daughter Gianna, who also died in the crash).
The Grammy Awards have been held at the arena more than 22 times, more than at any other venue in the ceremony's history.
The Name Change
On December 25, 2021—Christmas Day—Staples Center was renamed Crypto.com Arena in a 20-year naming rights deal reported at $700 million, the largest such deal in sports venue history. The cryptocurrency exchange had purchased its way into the consciousness of Los Angeles sports fans during the peak of the crypto boom.
The new name met predictable resistance. Many longtime fans continued to call it Staples. The venue itself was unchanged. It will host gymnastics and boxing events at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, adding another layer to a history that already contains more defining moments per square foot than almost any building in American sports.
From the Air
Crypto.com Arena is located in the South Park district of downtown Los Angeles, immediately south of the L.A. Live entertainment complex and adjacent to the Los Angeles Convention Center. From altitude on approach to KLAX from the east, the arena's distinctive circular roof is visible amid the downtown tower cluster. The 110 Harbor Freeway passes just to the west; the 10 Santa Monica Freeway is to the south. The Staples signage was removed when the name changed; look for the Crypto.com Arena markings on the roof. Nearest airports: KLAX (Los Angeles International) to the southwest, KHHR (Hawthorne Municipal) nearby.