Best Seats At Crypto.com Arena
Crypto.com Arena — Staples Center to anyone who was here before 2021, and still to most locals — has been the center of gravity for downtown LA since it opened in 1999. Kobe built a legacy on this floor, the Kings won two Stanley Cups here, and the building has hosted more Grammy Awards shows than anywhere else on earth. A four-year, nine-figure renovation finished ahead of the 2025-26 season, delivering a new center-hung scoreboard, the indoor-outdoor City View Terrace, and a top-to-bottom rebuild of nearly every club in the place.
This is a premium, celebrity-adjacent building in the most expensive sports market in the country, so nothing here is cheap. The bones are excellent and there are very few genuinely bad seats — but so much of the lower bowl and the entire middle ring are given over to premium product that the ordinary inventory is smaller than the capacity suggests. Knowing where it sits is what saves you money.
Seating Overview
Three seated tiers wrap the floor, and the shape of the building explains the prices. The 100 Level runs sections 101 through 119 and holds the closest seats. Above it sits the Premier ring, where the center sideline blocks are all PR-coded club product and the only standard seating is at the ends — sections 205-210 and 214-219. The 300 Level (sections 301-324 and 329-334) is the upper deck, and it sits higher than you’d expect because three full suite levels — A, B and C — stack between the two concourses.
Two building notes do most of the work here. Sections 101 and 111 sit on the center line, facing each other across the floor, with the benches and the scorer’s table along the 119-101-102 sideline for both Lakers and Kings games. And the entry tunnels flip by level: you enter a 100 Level section at the top, a 200 Level section at the front.
The quirk that costs people money: most 100 Level side and end sections carry lettered rows (A, B, C and up) in front of Row 1 for basketball and concerts, so a ticket that says “Row 1” can sit a dozen or more rows back from the floor. The corner sections don’t — there, Row 1 really is the front row. Check the row map before you assume anything.
Best Seats for Lakers Games
Sections 110, 111 and 112 are the sharp pick. This is the broadcast angle, looking straight across at the benches, the scorer’s table and celebrity row, and you see plays develop end to end without swinging your head. It’s also the most expensive non-premium real estate in the building.
Sections 119, 101 and 102 put you directly behind the action instead of in front of it — the huddles, the substitutions, the coach working the official. You give up the clean cross-court view, and you’ll spend a chunk of the night looking at the backs of the courtside row.
The corner sections, 104-105 and 113-114, are where the lower bowl gets reasonable. Because corners skip the lettered rows, a low row number here genuinely puts you near the floor for meaningfully less than the sidelines. The angle flattens toward the far basket, and these sections run deep — up to 28 rows — so the back half is a long way from anything.
Best Seats for Kings Games
The long side of the rink, sections 110-112 and 119-102, is the right answer for hockey. From a blue-line perspective you track the puck through both zones without the whiplash a behind-the-net seat gives you, and this is where Kings regulars sit.
The 114-117 end is the shoot-twice end — the Kings attack toward it in the first and third periods, so you get two-thirds of the offense in front of you. One catch worth knowing: the front rows of the 100 Level end sections are premium glass seats tied to the Delta SKY360° Club, so the first publicly sold row sits back from the boards. End sections at hockey run up to 31 rows, roughly twelve lettered followed by eighteen or nineteen numbered.
Protective netting hangs above the glass behind both goals. It’s thin enough that you stop noticing it after a period, but if a completely unbroken view matters to you, stay on the long side.
Best Seats for Concerts
The 100 Level side sections angled toward the stage hit the sweet spot — a clean line to the stage without the front-row markup. Above them, the 200 Level ends are the concert value play, since you’re at a good height without paying for amenities you won’t use standing up at a show.
Skip the first few rows of the lower-bowl sections directly opposite the stage. The soundboard tent parks at the back of the floor right in front of them, and between the equipment racks and the crew standing on risers you lose the center of the stage. A higher row in the same section clears it entirely.
Know what floor seats actually are here. The arena floor is flat, and floor tickets are numbered blocks of folding chairs set up for that production — not tiered stadium seating. If you’re short, or you want to sit rather than stand all night, the lower bowl is the better buy. GA floor tickets are standing room only, they enter through the Kobe Bryant Entrance, and everyone gets a wristband inside; the arena asks that nobody line up before 10 a.m.
Avoid anything tucked behind or hard beside the stage in the upper corners. Video screens disappear and the sound goes muddy. Because the chart is redrawn for every production, always pull the specific event’s map before you buy.
Best Value Seats
The 200 Level end sections — 205-210 and 214-219 — are the smart-money seats in the building, and it isn’t close. They’re the only standard inventory on that level, elevated enough to read defensive rotations in basketball and follow the puck end to end in hockey, at a fraction of what the comparable lower-bowl seats cost. Each section runs just 12 rows and the tunnel enters at the front, so there’s no climb and no bad row.
What you give up is the sideline angle — you’re behind the basket or the net, which flattens depth perception on the near end. For hockey in particular, plenty of people who have sat both actually prefer this height.
Cheapest Way In
The 300 Level is the floor price, and it holds up better than you’d expect because the upper deck was built steep and clean. The sideline sections — 301, 302, 333 and 334 on one side, 317-319 on the other — are the ones to target, and the lower rows still read both ends of the floor.
Two things to dodge up here. The first few rows of some 300 Level sections sit behind a rail and a glass partition that cuts into the view, so a row or two back is often the better seat. And avoid the very last rows, where the ceiling slopes down and the space gets cramped if you’re tall.
My Pick
If you only take one piece of advice: grab a low row in a 100 Level corner — 104, 105, 113 or 114. No lettered rows means the number on your ticket is the real distance from the floor, you’re in the lower bowl for well under sideline money, and the angle is honest rather than compromised.
What to Avoid (and What’s Worth Trying Once)
The upper-corner and behind-stage sections at concerts are the clearest “don’t” — obstructed stage views and dead sound. The back rows of the 300 Level are the other one, purely for the ceiling slope and the distance.
But one seat is worth doing once even though it isn’t the best view in the house: courtside, or premium glass at a Kings game. You’re too low to see over players and the far end feels far away, so it’s genuinely worse for watching the game — but you can hear everything, you’re a few feet from celebrity row, and it comes with Delta SKY360° Club access. You’ll remember it long after you’ve forgotten a better sightline.
Premium Seating at Crypto.com Arena
The premium layer here is unusually deep: three suite levels, a full ring of Premier seats between the bowls, and a club on nearly every floor. Most of it is sold as a season membership, which is worth knowing before you go looking — but two pieces are buyable for a single night, and one of them is new.
The Best Premium Experience
The Delta SKY360° Club on the Event Level is the top of the pyramid, and the only club in the building that’s genuinely all-inclusive. Access is limited to Premium Glass and Courtside seat holders, it has its own dedicated entrance, and the food and premium bar service are built into the ticket rather than sold à la carte. This was the Chairman’s Club before the renovation rebuilt it, and it’s where the courtside crowd and their famous friends wait out the pregame.
Best Value Premium
The Premier ring — the PR sections that wrap between the lower and upper bowls — is the premium call a regular would actually make. You get in-seat food and drink service at every Lakers and Kings game, two VIP entrances straight into the UCLA Health Premium Levels that skip the general lines entirely, access to the Yaamava’ Club by San Manuel, and a Team LA Store discount. On a sold-out Lakers night the entrance alone is worth twenty minutes.
The catch is how it’s sold. Premier is a season membership covering all Lakers, Kings and Sparks home games including playoffs, so single seats reach the public mainly through the resale market. Worth pricing out, because the padded seats and the wait service make it the best all-round experience in the building that isn’t courtside.
The Sky Deck
The Sky Deck is the one premium add-on anyone can buy for a single night, and it’s the newest thing in the building. It’s a pre-show party on the Upper Concourse overlooking L.A. LIVE before select concerts — live DJ, complimentary light bites, photo ops, an exclusive space and, the real draw, early entry before general doors open. Tickets are sold per show through AXS at a flat per-person rate.
It is not the artist’s VIP package and doesn’t include meet-and-greets, so buy it for the space and the head start, not for access to the performer.
Other Premium Options
The Lexus Club on Suite Level A is the elegant-dining option — three spaces called the Legacy Lounge, the Chef’s Room and The Point, three bars, seated dining and a private patio over L.A. LIVE. Its seats are the center sideline Premier blocks the arena calls “The Center 6” — PR4 through PR6 and PR13 through PR15 — which are the flattest, most comfortable angles in the building.
The Yaamava’ Club by San Manuel sits at the east end of Suite Level A: a full-service restaurant and bar with seating overlooking the bowl, open to Premier and Suite Level A holders. Reservations are recommended and can usually be made the day of, subject to availability.
The Hyde Lounge on Suite Level C goes the opposite direction — a 4,000-square-foot nightlife space with ledge seating, private rooms for parties from two to two hundred, and in-seat catering and bar service. It’s available for single-night rentals, which makes it the easiest premium space to book for a group without a membership.
The Amex Lounge on Suite Level B is the sleeper. American Express Platinum and Centurion Card Members get in with the physical card and a photo ID — no special ticket — after checking in on the Main Concourse across from aisle M22, next to the Team LA Store. Food and drinks are for purchase, not comped. Platinum brings one guest, Centurion up to three, and space is first-come until capacity fills.
Suites & Group Options
The arena carries more than 160 suites across Suite Levels A, B and C, holding roughly 8 to 30 guests each. Level A sits closest to the floor with Yaamava’ and Lexus Club access; Level C guests get the Hyde Lounge. All of them include VIP entrances, preferred parking, an in-suite attendant and catering available for purchase. Pricing swings hard by tenant and opponent, and single-night rentals are available even if you’re not a member — book through the arena’s premium sales team.
Crypto.com Arena Seating Chart and Capacity
Crypto.com Arena sits at 1111 S. Figueroa Street in downtown LA, wedged into the L.A. LIVE complex next to the Convention Center. Capacity shifts by configuration: 19,079 for basketball, 18,118 for hockey, and close to 20,000 for concerts depending on the stage setup.
The building runs six levels — Event Level for floor and GA tickets, the Main Concourse serving both the 100 and 200 Level seats, Suite Levels A, B and C, and the Upper Concourse for the 300s. For the exact section-by-section view, check out the Lakers and Kings interactive seating charts. As well as the Crypto.com Arena Map for concerts.
Getting the Best Tickets
Demand here is tenant-driven. Lakers games carry the highest prices in the building and marquee opponents spike hard, so the secondary market often beats face value on ordinary weeknights when season-ticket holders dump inventory.
Kings games are consistently more affordable across every level, and Sparks games are the cheapest way to see the building at all. For concerts, the big names sell out at on-sale, so set alerts. One mechanic to know: all tickets are delivered through AXS Mobile only, and the Box Office opens three hours before each event.
Upcoming Events at Crypto.com Arena
This is one of the busiest arenas in the world, and the calendar runs well past basketball and hockey — UFC cards, championship boxing, WWE, family shows, one of the deepest concert schedules anywhere, and the Grammy Awards, staged here more often than at any other venue.
The arena upcoming events page is the fastest way to see what’s on tap and when doors open for each one.
Whatever you’re chasing, you can check out ticket prices for all events through our partner at Vivid Seats. They should have good inventory for Lakers, Kings, Concerts, etc. If you buy through Vivid they’ll send you a link to transfer over to the AXS app.
Crypto.com Arena Bag Policy
This is one of the strictest bag policies in major sports, so read it before you leave home. All bags are banned — every backpack, purse, tote, fanny pack and camera bag, and yes, even the clear bags most stadiums now require are prohibited here. The only thing that comes in is a small clutch or wallet smaller than 5″ x 9″ x 1″, plus medical and parental bags smaller than 14″ x 14″ x 6″ that go through an X-ray screen.
There’s no clutch-with-a-strap loophole and no clear-bag workaround. If you show up with something bigger, Binbox lockers next to the Kobe Bryant Entrance (by the LA Kings Monument at Chick Hearn Plaza and Georgia Street) rent through the Binbox app, cashless like everything else here. Bag check opens an hour before doors and closes an hour after.
One unopened plastic water bottle up to a liter is allowed in, or one empty refillable bottle. Glass and metal bottles are prohibited. Plastic baby bottles, formula and breast pumps are permitted.
Key Venue Policies
Fully cashless venue. Every transaction inside runs on debit, credit or mobile pay. No cash is accepted anywhere, so come with a card or a phone set up to tap.
Re-entry is permitted. If you need to step out, find a Guest Services team member to scan your ticket before you go, then repeat security and ticket scanning on the way back in. There’s no coat check, so plan your layers around a building you can’t stash anything in.
Screening runs on Evolv Express walk-through technology, so you can usually keep your phone, keys and wallet on you. The prohibited list is long: weapons, laser pointers, glow sticks, flashlights, professional cameras with detachable or telephoto lenses, GoPros, selfie sticks, tripods, tablets, laptops, flags and banners. Personal binoculars are fine, and signs no larger than 11″ x 17″ are allowed if they’re not on a pole. One easy-to-miss rule: costumes, props, full face masks and face paint are not permitted.
Alcohol is capped at two per purchase, ID is requested from anyone who looks under 35, and sales stop at the 12:00 mark of the fourth quarter for NBA and WNBA games and the 10:00 mark of the third period for hockey.
Accessibility: the arena offers ADA and companion seating on every level, elevator access between concourses, accessible entrances and mobility assistance on request. Wheelchair and companion seats can be booked through the box office or the team, and it’s worth arranging ahead for busy events. Full details live on the arena’s accessibility guide.
For an updated list of all policies, check the arena website.
Getting to Crypto.Com Arena
Downtown LA is one of the rare parts of the city where you genuinely don’t need a car, and the arena sits right on top of the best transit connections in the region. Take the train if you can.
Metro Rail (Best Option)
The Metro A and E Lines both stop at Pico Station, one block from the door — a two-to-three-minute walk. Fare is $1.75 one way on a TAP card, and the smart move is loading round-trip fare before the event so you’re not stuck in a machine line with 18,000 other people afterward. The B and D Lines hit 7th Street/Metro Center, a larger station a fifteen-minute walk north that absorbs post-event crowds far better than Pico, which jams the moment the building empties.
Rideshare
Uber and Lyft use two designated white zones steps from the entrances — the Chick Hearn Court zone (eastbound, between L.A. Live Way and Georgia Street) and the Figueroa Street zone (southbound, between 12th and Pico). LAPD enforces the “No Stopping” signs everywhere else in the district, so don’t let your driver freelance a curb.
Post-game surge is brutal and the waits stack when everyone requests at the same second. The move is to walk two or three blocks north on Figueroa past the Hotel Figueroa before you open the app — five minutes on foot cuts the surge and gives your driver a clean exit instead of the Figueroa bottleneck.
Crypto.com Arena Parking
If you must drive, the L.A. LIVE structures just north of the arena and the arena’s official lots are the closest options, priced by event. The West Garage (Lot W) is the value play among them — a flat rate with no validation needed, Gate B opening 3½ hours before the event off Chick Hearn Court. The West Garage and the Convention Center structures also feed you toward the 110 and 10, which can shave a half hour off the surface-street crawl after a Lakers game. Digital parking passes must be shown at the gate — a confirmation email won’t get you in.
The real savings are off-site: more than 10,000 privately run spaces sit within a seven-to-ten-minute walk, and booking ahead on SpotHero or ParkWhiz routinely lands covered parking for less than half the arena rate, cheapest on the streets west of the arena toward the 110.
Tailgating is prohibited and LAPD enforces it, so pre-game happens in the bars, not the lots. Honest take: parking costs as much as four round-trip Metro fares and you’ll sit in postgame traffic regardless, so unless you’re coming from a transit dead zone, the train wins.
Crypto.com Arena Insider Tips
A night here is as much about the building and the neighborhood as the game itself — twenty-five-plus years of history, a renovation that touched nearly every corner of it, and the whole L.A. LIVE district wrapped around the doors. Here’s what separates the regulars from the first-timers.
Signature Feature: Star Plaza and the Statues
Show up early just to walk Star Plaza. The statue garden out front honors the pantheon of LA sports — Kobe (twice, including the one with his daughter Gianna), Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Chick Hearn, Wayne Gretzky and Oscar De La Hoya, with Pat Riley added in February 2026. It’s the signature photo, best shot before you head in while the light’s good and the crowd’s thin.
Give the Kobe and Gianna statue a few minutes. Of everything out here, this is the one that stops people in their tracks, and it’s the single most “you were here” moment of the night.
Who Plays at Crypto.com Arena?
Three teams call it home: the Lakers, the LA Kings and the LA Sparks. Between them the building has celebrated six NBA championships, two Stanley Cups and three WNBA titles, and it’s hosted 22 Grammy Awards shows on top of that.
The Clippers are gone. They shared this building for 25 years but moved to their own arena, the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, ahead of the 2024-25 season. If you’re searching old Clippers seating advice for this venue, none of it applies anymore.
It’s still Staples Center to most of the city. The name changed in December 2021 under a twenty-year naming-rights deal, but locals, cab drivers and half the signage in your memory will say Staples. Nobody will be confused if you do too.
City View Terrace: The Best Free Upgrade in the Building
Go find City View Terrace on the Upper Concourse even if your seat is somewhere else. The renovation tore out four end-zone sections to build it, swapping ten-foot windows for thirty-foot glass and putting a permanent bar in the middle of a 10,764-square-foot indoor-outdoor space.
It’s not a ticketed or premium area — any fan with a ticket can walk in. There are reserved and first-come areas, communal tables, bar stools, and an outdoor patio looking north over the downtown skyline with the arena bowl below to the south.
The best food in the building is up here too. David Chang’s fuku spicy fried chicken stand lives on the terrace, which makes it the one detour worth making on a 300 Level ticket.
How to Spot Celebrities at a Lakers Game
Celebrity row runs along the bench sideline, in front of sections 119, 101 and 102. The scorer’s table sits at the center of it, and the courtside chairs flanking that table are the famous ones — Jack Nicholson’s legendary seats, held since 1970, sit between the scorer’s table and the visitors’ bench, and his son Ray turns up in them now.
If spotting is the point, sit across the floor, not behind them. Sections 110, 111 and 112 look straight at celebrity row all night; from 119 or 101 you’re staring at the backs of their heads. The Premier sections directly above that same sideline give you the same view from higher up.
Don’t expect to bump into anyone on the concourse. High-profile guests come in through the loading dock ramp the players use and reach their seats through the player corridors, and they spend pregame and halftime inside the clubs. The floor is the only place you’ll see them.
Pick your night. Marquee opponents, national TV games and the playoffs are when the floor fills up; a Tuesday in January against a lottery team is not. And be respectful with the phone — arena security does not play about it.
Stadium Traditions and Crowd Culture
The vibe is Hollywood-cool, not manufactured. A Lakers crowd runs on its own energy rather than a hype man, and it reads as quiet on TV when in person it’s just a more grown-up kind of loud. A Kings game is a different animal — the goal horn, the “Go Kings Go” chant and a rowdier, more participatory crowd.
Arrival Strategy and Best Entrances
Skip Star Plaza as an entrance and use the Kobe Bryant Entrance at Chick Hearn Court and Georgia Street. Everyone funnels to the Instagram-famous plaza, so lines there run long on big nights while the Kobe entrance stays shorter because out-of-towners don’t know it. The Figueroa Entrance at 12th and Figueroa is usually the quietest of the three.
Check the door time on the event page — it isn’t the same for every event. The arena sets doors per event rather than by a blanket rule, and a concert opens on a different clock than a Lakers game. With screening this strict, budget 30 to 40 minutes of buffer.
Premium and suite holders have their own doors — two VIP entries into the UCLA Health Premium Levels, plus a dedicated Amex Card Member entrance built into the Kobe Bryant Entrance.
Tickets and the AXS App
Bought on a resale site? The tickets still have to land in AXS. Watch for a transfer email from the seller — it comes separately from your order confirmation — and accept it using the same email address you used to place the order, which drops the seats straight into your AXS account. Do that the day it arrives, not the afternoon of the game.
Download the AXS app and sign in before you leave home. Crypto.com Arena is AXS Mobile only — screenshots and printed QR codes are rejected, and the code rotates, so a screenshot will fail at the gate. Cell service at the doors crawls, so do this on your couch.
Don’t panic if you only see one barcode. AXS runs a single rotating Mobile ID tied to your account no matter how many seats are on the order, and the gate scans it once per ticket.
Transfer tickets to your group before the event so everyone walks in on their own phone instead of clustering at one gate.
Don’t bother with the arena’s own app unless you’re a premium member — its best features are built around premium seating. Plain AXS is all a regular ticket needs.
Food & Drink Strategy
The food here punches well above arena standard — plan around it. Beyond fuku on the terrace, Michelin-starred chef Ludo Lefebvre runs three stands on the Main Concourse: LudoBird for Provençal fried chicken sandwiches (a fixture since 2013), Ludobab for Mediterranean kebabs and pita, and Trois Familia for Mexican classics with a French twist.
Dirt Dog’s elote dog is at Sections 102 and 112, and Fresh Brothers pizza is at Section 109. For LA flavor without leaving your level, those are the picks.
Doritos After Dark is a fun once. The world’s first brick-and-mortar Doritos restaurant is a proper sit-down space by the Star Plaza entrance, open only to ticket holders during events, and it’s pure gimmick — genuinely enjoyable one time.
Beat the lines at the cashierless markets. The Amazon Just Walk Out stores on the Main Concourse — the Bud Light Seltzer and Michelob Ultra markets between Sections 105 and 108, plus the L.A. Cooler Shop — let you tap a card at the gate, grab a drink and walk out with no register. You’re through in under two minutes while the regular stands are fifteen deep.
Time your snack run for the last 60 to 90 seconds of a quarter or period. You beat the intermission stampede and get back before play resumes — though ushers will hold you at the tunnel until the ball or puck is out of play, so don’t cut it too fine.
Bring an empty refillable bottle. Water fountains sit at Main Concourse aisles 6, 9, 17 and 22, and Upper Concourse aisles 5, 16 and 30 — a free refill in a building where nothing else is.
Amex Cardholder Perks
Enroll for 10% back on concessions. American Express is the arena’s official payment partner, and enrolled cardholders get 10% back as a statement credit on qualifying concession purchases, capped at $250 a calendar year. Enrollment happens in the Amex app and only applies to the card you enroll.
Use the dedicated Card Member entrance. It’s built into the Kobe Bryant Entrance and it’s a real line-skip on a busy night — you can bring guests through as long as everyone’s present with a valid ticket.
What to Wear: Kings Games Run Cold
Bring a layer to a hockey game. The arena runs at roughly 75 degrees for most events but about 65 degrees for ice events, and it feels colder the closer you sit to the surface. A hoodie or flannel is the difference between comfortable and miserable in the lower bowl.
For basketball and concerts, a t-shirt is fine. The floor covers the ice for Lakers and Sparks games and the building warms right back up.
Merch: The TEAM LA Store
Shop the TEAM LA store on Chick Hearn Court — no ticket needed most days. Next to the Administration Office Tower, it carries the largest licensed selection for the Lakers, Kings, Galaxy and Sparks, open daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Beat the event-day cutoff. On sporting event days it closes 1½ hours before doors open, and during Saturday or Sunday doubleheaders it’s shut entirely to non-ticketed guests.
Families & Kids
Use a parental bag under 14″ x 14″ x 6″ as your diaper-bag path. Regular bags aren’t allowed, but a parental bag that size clears X-ray — the workaround most parents miss.
Know the age rules. Children two and under get in free on a lap; anyone three or older needs their own ticket and seat. Leave the stroller in the car — strollers aren’t permitted in the seating sections and there’s nowhere to check one.
Grab a free identification wristband at the entrance. Write your name and number on it for your kid to wear — they’re at every main entrance and at Guest Services, and they turn a lost-child situation into a two-minute problem.
Hit Guest Services for free earplugs. The centers sit on the Main Concourse across from aisle M12 and the Upper Concourse across from aisle U6, and the earplugs are genuinely clutch for little ears at a playoff crowd or a concert.
Aim for the 200 Level ends with kids. Good sightlines, a short walk from the tunnel at the front of the section, and easier bathroom and concession runs than the lower bowl.
Autographs & Player Access
Set expectations first: the arena runs no autograph program. There are no designated autograph locations, no requests processed, and ushers hold you to your ticketed section — so the fantasy of wandering down to the glass from a 300 Level seat is exactly that.
Get in when doors open and work your own level. Warmups are the window, the lower bowl stays thin until close to the anthem, and the section ends nearest the tunnels are the best geography if you’re down there.
At a Kings game, pucks that reach the seats are yours to keep. Netting behind the goals catches most of them, so the long side is where they actually land.
Exit Strategy
Let the bottleneck breathe if you’re not racing anywhere. Pico Station and Chick Hearn Court both jam the moment an event ends — twenty minutes at a nearby bar erases the worst of it and drops you into a half-empty station.
In a rush, walk north to 7th St/Metro Center instead. Fifteen minutes on foot, and it skips the crush at Pico entirely.
Venue-Specific Quirks
Expect a reusable cup. The arena runs a full-time reusable-cup program, so some drinks come in a returnable cup. Not a catch — just don’t toss it out of habit.
Tune the game in on FM. Bring headphones and listen live inside the building: 94.5 FM carries the radio commentary, 101.5 FM the TV commentary. It’s the cheapest upgrade in the place from an upper-deck seat.
Text Guest Services instead of hunting one down. Send your issue and location to 213-616-9950 and they’ll come to you. Free Wi-Fi is “Crypto.com Arena Public WiFi.”
Book a VIP tour on a non-event day. Behind-the-scenes tours run through artist dressing rooms, the locker room hallway and the Delta SKY360° Club, sold through AXS — the only way most people will see those rooms.
Crypto.com Arena at the 2028 Olympics
The building is an Olympic venue. It hosts artistic gymnastics, trampoline and the boxing finals during the 2028 Summer Games, roughly two dozen sessions between July 15 and 30, as part of the downtown cluster with the Convention Center and Peacock Theater. Gymnastics is one of the hardest tickets at any Games, so plan around the ticketing windows rather than expecting to walk up.
Things to Do Near Crypto.com Arena
If you’ve got time downtown before or after, the GRAMMY Museum is right there at L.A. LIVE. A few blocks north, The Broad has free general admission but requires reserving ahead, the Walt Disney Concert Hall is worth seeing from the outside alone, and Grand Central Market is the best single food destination in the city center.
L.A Live: Bars and Restaurants Near The Arena
Pregame here is L.A. Live, the entertainment complex fused to the arena — you can walk from your seat to any of it in five minutes, and on event nights it’s a churn of jerseys, tourists, and after-work groups. It’s built for exactly this, which is both its charm and its crowd problem.
Best Pregame & Postgame Bars
Yard House at L.A. Live is the default — 100-plus taps, dozens of TVs, big shareable plates, and it opens late-morning so you can post up hours early. Tom’s Watch Bar is the reliable overflow when Yard House is packed, wall-to-wall screens and late hours. Level 8, up on the rooftop of the Moxy across the street, is a taco bar with arena views that’s cheaper, faster, and cooler than waiting 45 minutes for a table at the complex.
33 Taps on Figueroa (in the base of the Moxy/AC Hotel, across from the arena) is the less-touristy, better-priced local option, and its happy hour is the pregame money-saver — $5 beers weekdays from 3 to 7 p.m. and again late-night from 9:30, which beats arena drink prices by a mile. And the Glance Lobby Bar inside the JW Marriott is the move for an upscale-but-relaxed drink and a quiet rideshare pickup away from the crush.
Best Restaurants in the Area
Sol Agave at L.A. Live does a big tequila list and reliable Mexican, and it takes reservations, which is clutch on a game night. Fixins Soul Kitchen is the spot when you want an actual meal — elevated soul food rather than bar snacks. Katsuya at L.A. Live covers the upscale-sushi craving right in the complex. For a broader taste of the city while you’re down here, Grand Central Market a short ride north is the best single food destination in downtown.
Hotels Near Crypto.Com Arena
Downtown LA is the obvious base — you can walk to the arena from most of the district’s hotels, and staying here means you skip the drive and the parking entirely. Gameday nights don’t sell out downtown the way a college football Saturday would, but a hot concert or a marquee Lakers game tightens things up, so book a couple of weeks out for those.
Best Areas to Stay
L.A. Live / South Park, the blocks immediately around the arena, is the no-brainer for walkability — you’re steps from your seat and the pregame bars. The Financial District, a short walk or quick ride north, trades a bit of distance for more hotel variety and a quieter base. Both put you in easy Metro range, and both let you leave the car parked all night.
Hotel Recommendations
The Front-Row Pick — JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. LIVE: connected to the complex and about as close as a hotel gets to the arena, with the trade-off being peak-LA pricing. The Splurge — The Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles: shares the tower with the JW Marriott and delivers the refined, top-tier stay. The Character Play — Hotel Figueroa: a historic, design-forward spot within walking distance with more personality than the chains.
The View — InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown: a high-rise with genuinely stunning city views a bit north in the district. The Home Base — Residence Inn Los Angeles L.A. LIVE: suite-style rooms for a longer stay or a family, right by the arena. The Icon — The Westin Bonaventure: the mirrored-cylinder landmark, walkable and full of LA-in-the-movies character.
Budget Options
Hotel Indigo Los Angeles Downtown is the stylish-for-less pick, modern and central without the L.A. Live markup. The Mayfair Hotel leans historic-budget and sits a short ride (or a walkable-in-daylight stroll) from the arena — good value, just be aware of your surroundings walking at night.
Why You Should Go
Crypto.com Arena is one of the few venues where the history, the location, and the building all pull their weight — you’re watching a game in the room where Kobe and Shaq played and the Kings won Cups, in a freshly renovated arena, wrapped in a walkable entertainment district with world-class food inside the gates. It’s not cheap, and the premium, see-and-be-seen energy isn’t everyone’s thing. But the sightlines are honest, there are almost no bad seats, and for a Lakers night, a Kings game, or a big concert, few places in the country deliver the whole package like this one.
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Written by Brad Richards. Founder of Gameday Guides. This guide includes insights from personal visits as well as updated info from team sources, fan forums, and stadium policies. We aim to help you plan with confidence — enjoy your gameday. If you have any tips, if we missed anything or you have a question, don’t hesitate to shoot us an email.