How does staples center switch from clippers to lakers

But then the Spirit Clippers Dance Team rolls drums onto the floor and begins beating them to a song while sparklers are set off into the air.

When LeBron James chose to come to L. The Lakers have a long-standing relationship with Robbins, which boasts on the company's website that its hard maple courts are the "industry's most advanced and only biomechanically tested floors.

The NBA requires that each team change its home court every 10 years, but the Lakers make sure there is constant upkeep in the meantime. When the Lakers choose to change their look -- a decision that comes from the very top, through controlling owner and president Jeanie Buss -- they have to notify Robbins well in advance. The Clippers turn to Horner Sports Flooring for their home court.

It's also maple and has a matching high-gloss polyurethane finish coat. But the aesthetic, like much of the rest of the game presentation, is very different. The Clippers' court has just three colors of paint on it black, red and white , while the Lakers' has four red, white, purple and gold , yet another category in which the Lakers can claim they lead the Clippers.

About an hour before the Clippers begin their point demolition of Atlanta, NBA superfan and millionaire Jimmy Goldstein is going through his typical game routine: posting up along the baseline and watching players go through their warm-ups.

Goldstein is in his signature, unique sort of rock-band look: a shiny, black, leather jacket and a flamboyant hat made of what looks like snakeskin. Goldstein is almost as much of a fixture at NBA games here as the Lakers banners that hang high above him. He says he has been a Lakers season-ticket holder for 58 years and a Clippers one for He attends more than games each season, and he travels from city to city during the postseason to go to as many playoff games as he can.

Through all the decades, one thing has remained constant: Friends ask him to take them to Lakers games -- not Clippers games. But the Lakers have that aura about them. It's the truth. They just treat you better. They're more celebrity-friendly. There's a culture. And it's a thing to sit at a Lakers game. When Staples Center opened its doors in , the arena was tailor-made for the Lakers: the purple seats, the sleek suites designed for corporate and celebrity hospitality, the grandeur befitting one of the NBA's most hallowed brands.

The Clippers were merely coming along for the ride. They ranked last in the league in attendance for several seasons running but secured a sweetheart lease that would allow them to be the stepchildren at Staples for six years. The Clippers would play a bunch of less desirable p.

PT starts and compete beneath the Lakers' 11 championship banners and the retired jerseys of Lakers legends. During the first 20 seasons at Staples, the Lakers and the Clippers rarely contended at the same time. The concrete had barely set before the Lakers ran off three straight titles while the Clippers remained doormats.

By the time the Clippers assembled a roster that won at least 50 games over a steady stretch, the Lakers were in decline, going seven consecutive seasons without a playoff series win.

When the final buzzer sounds at the end of Sunday's mid-day Clippers-Knicks game, the Staples Center Changeover Crew will start preparing the arena for the Lakers-Pacers game, scheduled for p. The Changeover Crew has performed about double-header switches since Staples Center opened in October Sixty of those have been basketball-to-basketball conversions, others were hockey-to-basketball conversions -- the fastest of which was accomplished in 1 hour, 50 minutes.

Swapping out a byfoot hockey rink for a byfoot basketball court is usually done in about 2 hours and 15 minutes. The Clippers-to-Lakers swap takes about 90 minutes and involves more than just the playing surface. The Golden State Warriors have taken advantage of this in San Francisco by building a significant amount of office space that they are leasing out. Without those ancillary revenue streams, the Lakers need to maximize revenue from ticket and suite sales.

They are hardly crying poverty. The Lakers have an enormous local television deal with Spectrum SportsNet, but few teams spend as consistently on player salary as the Lakers do, and as the team is the Buss family's primary business, its ability to pay for players and basketball operations relies in part on the team's financial success.

With this new lease, they are betting that with the proper renovations, they can generate enough revenue out of the Staples Center to remain financially strong for the next two decades. It was always the likeliest outcome, but the announcement confirms that the Lakers are staying in their home of the past two decades.

By Sam Quinn. May 27, at pm ET 2 min read. The Lakers are extending their lease with the arena. By David Wharton Staff Writer. A team official said renovations were key to the extension, as was a desire to remain downtown. Clippers Clippers given final approval to buy land needed for arena in Inglewood. Lakers Business Real Estate California. David Wharton. Follow Us twitter instagram email facebook.

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