TRAVEL FRONTIER

Staples StStStStS CenterStaplesStaplesCenterapaples Centnterer CeCeCeCentntntnterererere Picture: LATCB sauna, basketball and squash courts, huge gym and rooftop yoga. SIT IN THE STANDS For those who prefer to watch sports there is the Memorial Coliseum (lacoliseum.com), which hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984, and is now home to the Rams and college football games. The multipurpose Staples Center (staplescenter.com), which opened in Downtown LA at the end of 1999, hosts sport whether basketball or ice hockey and entertainment such as Cirque de Soleil.

It’s the home stadium for the LA Clippers NBA team, the women’s LA Sparks basketball team and the LA Lakers, which owns its own flooring that has to be installed whenever they play.

All the courts sit over the ice ring. Before the National Hockey League’s LA Kings play, a team of 50 staff peels back the basketball seats and court to expose the ice. And all in under two and a half hours if there’s a double-header sports day on. Staples’ operations director Armen Dembekjian said timing can be tight.

“At 1.07pm the puck drops (for ice hockey), 3.30pm-3.45pm the game finishes so we have to flip the building to basketball and make it available for players to warm up by 6pm. Hockey to basketball or basketball for hockey, we’re constantly flipping the building,” he said.

“There is generally just a lot of excitement around sports at the moment with the Rams back in town. The LA Kings have won two Stanley Cups in three years, after not winning any for 45 years, and teams like the Lakers, everybody loves the Lakers.”

A Lakers or a Kings game — or both — should be on everyone’s bucket list, not to mention scoffing a hotdog or two.

Construction has also begun on a new $350 million soccer stadium, the first to be built in the city limits since the Dodgers stadium in 1962. Part-owned by LA basketball legend Magic Johnson, it is set to open in 2018 and attract other major sporting teams and events including the Super Bowl.

“It really is about sports at the moment,” Apelian said. “LA locals know it or are rediscovering it and tourists of all levels will too. LA is more than just Hollywood.” The writer was a guest of Discover Los Angeles, discoverlosangeles.com On tour with Bikes and Hikes LA The Boston Celtics v the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center TERRILL- POOL/ e:e