It’s quite common for professional sports franchises to share their facilities with another, but the Staples Center in Los Angeles has taken chaotic scheduling to another level during the NBA and Stanley Cup playoffs.
The National Hockey League’s Los Angeles Kings and the National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Clippers and Lakers are all currently enjoying successful playoff runs and their respective schedules are about to intertwine, making for one extremely busy weekend in the showbiz capital of the world.
The Kings are one win away from advancing to the Stanley Cup final, while the Lakers and Clippers are in the middle of second-round series in the NBA’s Western Conference.
Take a look at this high-speed video of what the arena will go through several times in a short period of time:
To make things more complicated, there will be several road closures near the arena on Sunday due to America’s biggest professional cycling race — the Amgen Tour of California — taking place in the area.
Here is the full schedule of what the Staples Center has gone through and will go through again on Sunday, plus a list of some quick facts provided by the Kings:
– Thursday, May 17 at 6:00 p.m. (all times PT) — Kings vs. Phoenix Coyotes (Game 3)
– Friday, May 18 at 7:30 p.m. — Lakers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (Game 3)
– Saturday, May 19 at 12:30 p.m. — Clippers vs. San Antonio Spurs (Game 3)
– Saturday, May 19 at 7:30 p.m. — Lakers vs. Thunder (Game 4)
– Sunday, May 20 (from 10:10-11:45 a.m. Amgen Tour of California begins near the arena)
– Sunday, May 20 at Noon — Kings vs. Coyotes (Game 4)
– Sunday, May 20 at 7:30 p.m. — Clippers vs. Spurs (Game 4)
– The Staples Center has done 127 doubleheader conversions in 13 seasons. In the 2011-12 season the arena has hosted 19 doubleheaders so far (this weekend will make it 21).
– Converting from hockey ice to basketball court takes approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes to complete.
– Converting from basketball court to basketball court takes approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete.
– The doubleheader conversion team consists of 35 workers on the event floor with an additional 125 members of a cleaning crew to clean the one million square foot arena. There are also workers in the catering, broadcast and event services departments participating in the conversion.
– The arena has 168 Suites and 53 refreshment stands.
– On Sunday the Kings will have 20,000 fans at Staples Center for a 12:00 p.m. game; The Amgen Tour of California anticipates more than 30,000 fans along the race route from 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and the Los Angeles Convention Center will have two conferences that will host more than 18,000 guests. Fans are encouraged to leave plenty of time when heading to the arena and to use public transportation.