A Nip and Tuck for Staples Center

A three-year, $20 million upgrade culminates in slick new event suites with curated L.A. themes, as the 17-year-old arena looks to win the war in an increasingly venue-dense city

- Rebecca Sun

STAPLES CENTER turns 17 this October, and owner AEG has given the L.A. mainstay, which grossed $48.3 billion in 2015, a makeover. It’s part of a strategy to stay competitive — Staples ranks ninth in the world among arenas its size (more than 15,000 seats) — in the increasingly crowded landscape of L.A. venues, from the Hollywood Bowl to the Forum, which reopened in 2014 after a $100 million revamp, to the NFL Rams’ $2.6 billion future complex. “Any time you add another venue in a crowded marketplace, it’s going to make a difference,” Staples Center president Lee Zeidman tells THR, “because we’re all competing for the same content.”