Content in play at Crypto.com Arena

LAKER FAN: Zach Bryan sports a Los Angeles Lakers T-shirt during his concert at Crypto.com Arena on June 3, among Bryan’s three 2024 shows at the downtown Los Angeles venue. (Getty Images)

No guarantees for more concerts after Clippers’ exit

LOS ANGELES, California — Crypto.com Arena will be hard pressed to top its 238 events over the past fiscal year — a record for the 25-year-old venue — despite greater date flexibility with the loss of the Los Angeles Clippers.

The number is impressive, considering the arena has remained open for business during extensive renovations over the past four years, culminating in a final phase taking place next summer for a total project cost in the mid-nine figures.

The event load could’ve gone higher had three of the four sports tenants at the downtown LA arena advanced beyond the first round of the playoffs, according to arena president Lee Zeidman.

The NBA’s Clippers, one of those teams in question, played their home games at Crypto.com Arena since it opened in 1999 as Staples Center. That changed this fall, when the Clippers moved to the Intuit Dome, their new $2 billion arena in Inglewood, resulting in 40-plus open dates for AEG’s flagship facility to fill with concerts, family shows and other special events.

It’s not simple math, considering LA is the most competitive market in North America, Zeidman said, with 10 venues competing for content among all the arenas, stadiums and amphitheaters in town.

Apart from Intuit Dome and the Kia Forum, both owned by Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, Zeidman mentioned the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, BMO Field, Rose Bowl Stadium, SoFi Stadium, Dodger Stadium, the Hollywood Bowl and the Greek Theatre among Crypto.com Arena’s competitors for concerts in LA.

“People will tell you we picked up 41 dates, plus playoffs and we can just plug in concerts,” Zeidman said. “No, we can’t. This is a very crowded marketplace, moreso than New York, which is more spread out with Brooklyn, Long Island and Manhattan. In LA, all these venues are within 25 minutes apart (depending on traffic) and there’s not enough content. From what we’ve been told from promoters, 2025 won’t be a robust year for arena concerts. Everybody’s fighting for them.”

As it stands now, the landscape for emerging talent is increasingly tied to the advent of social media, and part of the issue is the industry as a whole needs to do its part to find new ways to develop talent, Zeidman said. Over the past decade, some artists have seemingly come out of nowhere through TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, effectively skipping a few rungs up the proverbial ladder for playing clubs and theaters before expanding to arenas and stadiums.

“That concept is not sustainable anymore,” Zeidman said. “If you read some of the pundits, the acts aren’t being (correctly) developed. You don’t see a lot of club acts at Novo going to the Peacock Theater (both LA Live venues) and then coming here to the arena. You can become a sensation by having an online video and gaining popularity, moving (directly) into a large theater or arena for that matter.”

Bottom line, tour promoters, working in tandem with the artist, band management and booking agencts, determine which venue to perform. Now, with three arenas holding 17,000 seats or more in LA, it’s easier for promoters to pick where they want to play, considering Crypto.com Arena remains AEG Presents’ primary venue for arena shows.

Tyler, the Creator’s “Chromakopia” tour, an AEG Presents production, will play six sold-out shows at Crypto.com Arena in February, but those multi-night runs at arenas aren’t as prevalent as they were in the past, given that A-list acts can sell that many tickets over a pair of stadium shows.

“Look at what Taylor Swift did,” Zeidman said. “She played here 16 times. Do I think she’ll come back here and play again? It’s highly unlikely now; she’s a big stadium act. It’s the same thing with Kenny Chesney.”

There are other factors in play. Crypto.com Arena still has three sports tenants, so date availability remains a challenge. AEG has different contracts for the NHL’s Kings, NBA’s Lakers and the WNBA’s Sparks, and for the most part, arena officials can’t override those lease terms when booking special events without getting fined from the three leagues.

“What we do is ‘either or,'” Zeidman said. “If an act wants to play in May, for example, we’ll tell them they can have May 10, but if the Lakers and Kings need it (for playoff games), we need to move them to the next available date. We’ve done that maybe half a dozen times, but it never got to the point where we’ve had to move somebody. We’ve lucked out.”

AEG would love to hold more boxing matches and UFC bouts. Crypto.Com Arena has held a handful of mixed martial arts competitions over the past quarter-century, but the tax rates levied by the California State Athletic Commission, the sports’ governing body, tied to ticket sales, broadcast rights and athletes’ purses have made it difficult for Zeidman to book those events.

“They can play Las Vegas with no state tax,” he said. “To do those big title fights, they get the big casino buys. We don’t have that situation here. We’re not going to do major title fights here in my lifetime, unless someone really wants to, because you’re going to make most of your money in Vegas.”