From Sneakers to Skates

Staples Center is the only arena in North America to house three major professional sports teams. For that reason, among others, it will not often be dark. About 200 events are scheduled during its first year, with the number expected to rise.

For Zeidman, vice president of operations for the arena, that means Kobe Bryant's pirouettes and Ziggy Palffy's feints can't be the only dazzling moves in the building. After the crowds leave, the 35 to 40 members of the crew must make their own magic, preparing for the next event--sometimes the same day. Three Clipper-King doubleheaders, two King-Clipper doubleheaders and one Laker-Clipper doubleheader are scheduled this season. Then, of course, there are the concerts, arena football and next summer's Democratic National Convention.

Zeidman expects the easiest switch for his crew, which includes workers from the Great Western Forum and Sports Arena, will be from the Clipper floor to the Laker floor, or vice versa. That should take 90 minutes. The teams could not share a floor because of differences in their colors, baskets, end zones and court-side seating arrangements. Also, some sideline ads must be changed because sponsors may have paid to advertise during one team's games, but not the other's. When the teams play each other, they will alternate the "home" team designation.

Changing from hockey to basketball will also be fairly easy, because there is no need to groom the ice. At the Forum, the swap took about seven hours with a crew of 24. Zeidman hopes to trim that to two hours at the new arena because, among other things, the new arena has storage areas at each end, enabling workers to move equipment in one door and out the other. The Forum had just one storage area.