Anybody here going to the Lakers viewing party at Staples for game 1 or 2?

[WayOutWest]

Tickets are $15 bucks.  So far there are lots of seats available.

[westkoast]

I was thinking about going for game 2 on the weekend.  Its only the lower bowl right?

[WayOutWest]

I was thinking about going for game 2 on the weekend.  Its only the lower bowl right?

So far yes.  I forget what year they actually sold out the entire Staples Center. 

I was thinking about going to game 2 as well.  I wonder if I can talk Reality into going, I still owe him for taking me to the first Lakers/Spurs game in the 2004 HOF season.  The tickets are mos def not the same price but I can use the "principal" of the things argument.

[Reality]

Darn, I (we?) missed it.  So i guess we can't meet with msc at Staples and watch Game 6s guaranteed Laker victory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHRR7l9Rw-w

Attack on Celtics fan spells end of big-screen bashes at Staples
By Kevin Modesti, Sports Editor

Remember when L.A. sports fans were pitied far and wide as iced-tea-sipping dilettantes who lack the "passion" to properly paint our faces, cheer our opponents' neck injuries and throw rocks at uncooperative referees like the real aficionados back east?
Yeah, for some reason that was considered an insult.

Well, good news! Our reputation is saved. Now L.A. fans look like morons, too.

Monday morning, it was announced that Staples Center will not be open for fans to watch tonight's Lakers-Celtics game from Boston on big TV screens, disappointing thousands of people who enjoyed such events earlier this month and the youth-oriented charities that reaped the proceeds.

The decision follows a June 8 incident at Staples Center (maybe you saw the video on the always-uplifting YouTube) in which a fan in a Celtics green jersey appeared to be attacked by a mob and struck with a chair during the showing of NBA Finals Game 2 from Boston.

But the decision's roots go deeper than that sorry episode, to an earlier request from the LAPD that Staples stop holding these so-called Home Court Advantage events because they require so much police presence - about 130 officers June 8, counting horseback, motorcycle and foot patrol.

In Monday's announcement, Staples Center and the Lakers cited "concerns for resources needed to ensure the safety of fans throughout Los Angeles on nights when the games would be played as well as potential financial burdens on various City departments."
The press release encouraged fans to "enjoy the upcoming games with friends and family and celebrate the (Lakers') championship run in a safe, responsible and respectful manner."

All in all, it doesn't paint a pretty picture for those who'd like to savor the camaraderie of a big, happy, cheering crowd in the region's basketball capitol.

Even before any of this happened, Staples had stopped showing Lakers playoff home games on giant screens outside the arena because of the potential for encouraging unruly crowds.

Of course, L.A. fans' old, laid-back image was a compliment, whether or not the rest of the country realized it. True, most people here don't live and die with their teams. But mostly for good reasons: Many of us come from somewhere else (it's nice here). We have so many teams (two in most sports, unless it's zero). We have so many other ways to amuse ourselves.

Maybe our image began to change when the Raiders and their rougher crowds called the Coliseum home.

Or maybe when the downtown "celebration" of the Lakers' 2000 championship produced news-video loops of burning automobiles.

Or maybe when it became less unusual to hear ugly chants and knee-jerk jeering (the Dodgers gave up a run! Booooo!) at Southern California events.

One theory: ESPN's misguided celebration of taunting, tough-guy fans in such places as Philadelphia and Boston has convinced fans here that that's the way to be.

Another theory: It's just a few bad apples who are spoiling our town's rep.

Yeah, but they're really bad apples.

Two days after the YouTubed brawl - one of several reported at Staples Center during Game 2 - police arrested Armando Arthur Talamantes, 30, a Los Angeles County resident. Detective supervisor Marcella Winn said Talamantes had been overheard by undercover officers bragging about his role in the June 8 violence. The charges include assault with a deadly weapon - specifically, hurling that folding chair.

The chair-toss victim was not seriously hurt, Winn said.

The police want to send the message that it's safe to enjoy basketball at Staples Center, that those who come to make trouble will be stopped, that violence at sports events here is not on the rise.

"The YouTube thing upsets me because it kind of suggests people got away with something," said LAPD Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz, who was in charge of the officers at Staples Center on June 8. "Some people did get away with something. But we did arrest (the chair-thrower)."

Crowds of 5,200 and 8,000 paid $10-$15 to watch Games 1 and 2 at Staples. Proceeds went to the Los Angeles Lakers Youth Foundation and the Staples Center Foundation. Similar events in past seasons were reported to have raised $300,000 for the charities.

But not everyone had charity in mind.

Nor are fans elsewhere showing much charity toward L.A. fans, pointing to this evidence that we're just as bad as everywhere else.

Said a blogger at BostonsportZ.com: "The Lakers had a viewing party at the Staples Center ... and this one Celts fan got into a brawl with a Lakers fan who was so `tough' that he threw a freakin chair at him. I guess he was confident enough it being thousands vs. one! Stay Classy LA!"

Another blogger at the same Web site suggested that the NBA would prefer a Celtics victory because "they would rather not have a championship immediately followed by a riot, like after the last few Laker titles."

But the worst insult to L.A.'s reputation comes from L.A., where our Police Department and our landmark arena have decided a basketball event for charity isn't worth the potential trouble.

When people can't go to watch a ballgame because there aren't enough cops, you wonder what we're coming to.

[msc]

Obviously these guys were able to attend the viewing at Staples because their MENSA meetings scheduled for June 8 were postponed. 

[Joe Vancil]

You know, that article is stupid for so many reasons.

Are LA fans the dispassionate bunch we see on TV at the games, or the rabid wildmen that get public viewings cancelled?

The answer - as for pretty much ANY major sports venue - is BOTH.

The dispassionate ones are the ones who can afford the ridiculous prices for awesome seats and get the seats for the actual games.  The face-painting, chair-throwing, fan-bashing, screaming incessantly contingent finally get their chance to do something when prices are reasonable and the game is big and people who can afford the great seats won't impress anyone by going - and sure enough, they take that chance.

That's not a commentary on LA fans.  It's a commentary on FANS.

Apparently, that incredibly evident explanation evades the writer.

[Reality]

I think about any city could have this happen.
Except San Antonio of course. 

[msc]

You know, that article is stupid for so many reasons.

Are LA fans the dispassionate bunch we see on TV at the games, or the rabid wildmen that get public viewings cancelled?

The answer - as for pretty much ANY major sports venue - is BOTH.

The dispassionate ones are the ones who can afford the ridiculous prices for awesome seats and get the seats for the actual games.  The face-painting, chair-throwing, fan-bashing, screaming incessantly contingent finally get their chance to do something when prices are reasonable and the game is big and people who can afford the great seats won't impress anyone by going - and sure enough, they take that chance.

That's not a commentary on LA fans.  It's a commentary on FANS.

Apparently, that incredibly evident explanation evades the writer.

Joe, I agree with everything you said. 

The thing about LA is everything is multiplied to the umpteenth power.  Every town in America has a group of thuggish hooligans, but while Smalltown, USA might have a couple of hundred or so, we have a half a million of them.  As an LA native, I can attest that the opposite is true as well; i.e., there are exponentially more "good" people here as well.

While I hate to see tickets get so expensive that only the "suits" with the big bucks can afford them, unfortunatetly I know that if regular season tickets only cost $10-$15 we'd see these kinds of violent, stupid actions at 41 home games. 

One thing I've noticed about our society in general and in my own backyard in LA is a lack of honor among people.  I was reminded of this last night watching NBA TV replay game 7 of the 1983/84 Finals in Boston.  Boston was up 7 or so with 38 seconds remaining and fans started rushing the court.  The officials had to keep stopping the game and clearing the court time and time again over the last 30 seconds of the game.  Finally, when the buzzer sounded, hundreds, if not thousands of rapid, drunken, Boston fans rushed the court in celebration.  The players were swarmed and the Lakers had a hard time getting off the court to the locker room but no one was harmed.  It's interesting becasue that could never happen in todays society.  Even if fans were able to get on the court, which with security these days would be tough, there's no doubt in my mind that some jackass with no honor would punch another fan or a player, or would swing a chair over someones head.  It's sad and unfortunatley this lack of honor is not just limited to Los Angeles.