Red Steel

In the US of A most buildings don’t have a long history, considering there are churches in old Europe telling a story stretching over a thousand years. Basically everything in the states has the charm of something new and fresh. And they made a great twist out of it, because everything is convenient and tries to hit the need of the one that uses it. Take stadiums or convention halls. While in Europe football stadiums tell a lot of stories, but it’s freaking cold and you might don’t see the whole picture. There it’s more about the glory instead of the functionality. But with every new stadium we are learning and by now we have a lot of those very practical Multi-Purpose-Sport-And-Convention-Thingies. And we learn from the best there is: The Staples Center.

The Staples Center was build and is owned by the Anschutz Entertainment Group. A multinational company that not only owns various sport teams in the USA and Europe but they also own ... aeh….how can I say that….well bits and pieces of Michael Jackson. Hence they tried to do these fabulous shows in London and he deceased shortly before they tried to make money with everything left. So the “This is it”-movie was there idea and you could even keep the entrance ticket for the shows in London for a little fee. But let’s come back from bones to stones. The final farewell of MJ was celebrated in the Staples Center. But what is good for the king of pop is also good for the queens of basketball: the LA Lakers. I was lucky and Microsoft paid me a ticket for the final series last year. Quite exciting, not only the match against Orlando, but also the architecture of the center. In these halls it is possible to change the interior design within hours. There are also NHL matches and concerts. Quite contradicting actually. But everything’s possible in LA. Highest capacity is 20.000 visitors. And still they have built the center in 1999 in a way, that every show, every match is looking packed. It is almost 100.000 square meters big, but it looks that there are many tens of thousands spectators. For the Lakers, the stands are assembled very steep under the roof. Therefore you have from almost every spot a great view. The seats up front are reserved for celebraties like Jack Nicholson or Heidi Klum. Most of the stands is covered in Black shadow, the plentiful lights are all directed to the court. Like a coloseum, where the gladiators meet. It is actually quite a challenge to get a ticket, which are often sold out for years. So what happens is, that groups share a certain capacity of season tickets. And they are shared among them like a trophy. So seeing a match is a priceless treasure. The Staples Center is close the Convention Hall where many fairs are held. You get there by car on S.Figueroa Street 1111, though it might be tough to get a parking lot, at least if you travel in a limo, like most people do.

Photographer:

wil6ka

Uploaded:

2009-08-06

Tags:

la lakers panoramix redscale staples center usa

Camera:

Noblex

Film:

Lomography Color Negative 35 mm ISO 100 (available in our shop)

City:

Los Angeles, CA

Country/region:

United States

Albums:

US Large

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