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Lakers at Crypto.com Arena: What time do doors open?

Doors open about 90 minutes before tip-off here.

Ready Time can tell you when to leave for your game →

So when do you leave?

Your leave-by time is the first travel row. Ready Time can alert you when it comes up. Put in your tip-off time, tap any duration, and the plan recomputes backward.

Tip-off
15 min Final pack & check 5:34 PM
25 min Drive to the arena 5:49 PM
10 min Park in a venue garage 6:14 PM
8 min Walk to the doors 6:24 PM
10 min Security screening 6:32 PM
8 min Walk to your seat 6:42 PM
10 min In your seat for the anthem 6:50 PM
Tip-off 7:00 PM

NBA game night at Crypto.com Arena, home of the Los Angeles Lakers. For a concert here, start from the concert night plan instead: a support act sets the deadline rather than the anthem.

Get an alert on game night when it’s time to leave for Crypto.com Arena.

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At a glance

Doors open
About 90 minutes before tip-off
Bags
Clutch onlyUnder 5 × 9 × 1 in; no clear bags either
Drive
About 25 min from downtown LAWithout game traffic · real drive
Transit
Metro A or E Line to Pico
Parking
Park in a venue garage
Formerly
Staples Center
Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles lit at night, the curved glass frontage onto the L.A. Live plaza.
Photo by Troutfarm27, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized for this page.

Tip-off times at Crypto.com Arena

Start times here are the team's own. The NBA sells no national window, so a game goes on when the building and the market suit and there is nothing to convert from Eastern. These are the slots this team plays most often.

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These are Crypto.com Arena’s own times. The team publishes start times with the schedule in the summer and a few move again for television during the season, so take the time on your ticket over the one you remember.

Cup group games, Christmas Day, the Martin Luther King Jr. Day afternoon and a nationally televised night run their own times. Type those in on the tip-off row.

Getting to Crypto.com Arena

The arena is at 1111 South Figueroa, close to both the 110 and the I-10, and a seven o’clock tip-off means the last few blocks are downtown at going-home time.

The Metro A and E Lines stop at Pico, which the arena puts a block west and two blocks north on foot, the J Line bus stops at Figueroa and Pico, and Metrolink connects at Union Station. On the way out rideshare surges the way it does anywhere downtown, and walking a couple of blocks toward the Convention Center before you request one cuts the wait.

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The arena owns its parking, roughly 3,300 spaces across seven lots and garages in the L.A. Live complex, and the two big garages are the ones to aim for. The West Garage on Chick Hearn Court has several ways in and the East Garage on West Olympic is the fallback, and both run from six in the morning until two the next, so nothing is waiting on a gate to lift.

The smaller lots follow the event instead: Lots 1 and C open two and a half hours out and the rest ninety minutes out. Parking sells through Ticketmaster alongside the ticket, and rideshare drops in the white zone on Chick Hearn Court between L.A. Live Way and Georgia.

The platform at Pico station on the Metro A and E Lines, a block west and two blocks north of the arena
Photo by Antony-22, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized for this page.

Doors, the queue, and what you can carry in

Bag rules are the arena's own here and they run from a wallet-sized clutch to a bag that fits under your seat. Getting it wrong usually means walking back to the car and re-entering the line.

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Check current sizes and door times on the Crypto.com Arena A to Z guide before you go.

Doors are ninety minutes before tip-off, the same window the building gives a Kings crowd, and the arena posts the time on each event page if you want to check your own date. Warmups are on the floor for most of it. Screening is the Evolv system rather than a magnetometer, so your phone, keys and wallet stay where they are and you walk through at a normal pace unless something flags.

The bag policy is one of the strictest anywhere: no bags, backpacks, totes, clear bags or fanny packs, and the only thing that goes in is a clutch or wallet smaller than 5 by 9 by 1 inches. Medical and parental bags smaller than 14 by 14 by 6 are x-rayed. There are Binbox lockers outside the Kobe Bryant Entrance. Re-entry means finding a Guest Services team member to scan your ticket before you go out.

Crypto.com Arena was previously called Staples Center, so older directions and tickets may still use that name.

Doors, lots and bag rules change; the official site is the live source.

Common questions

How early should I get to Crypto.com Arena?

Doors open about 90 minutes before tip-off here; that is when the crowd starts arriving, not when you have to. Being through the doors about half an hour before tip-off covers screening, the walk to your section, and a stop on the concourse.

When should I leave for Crypto.com Arena?

Work backward from tip-off: minutes in your seat beforehand, walk to your section, security screening, walk from the lot, parking, then the drive (25 minutes in the default plan). That puts leave-by at 5:49 PM for a 7:00 PM tip-off. Change the tip-off time and every row moves.

What time is tip-off at Crypto.com Arena?

It is whatever the team has scheduled, and these are local times rather than a converted national window. On this arena's clock: a weekend matinee tips off at 1:00 PM, an early-evening game at 6:00 PM, a night game at 7:00 PM, a later start at 8:00 PM. This example uses the night game window. Cup games, holiday afternoons and nationally televised nights run their own times; the tip-off row is editable for those.

How long does the security line take?

The plan allows 10 minutes for a normal walk-through queue. It runs longer in the twenty minutes before tip-off. Arriving fifteen minutes off that peak is usually enough.

What time do the doors open at Crypto.com Arena?

About 90 minutes before tip-off here. Check the Crypto.com Arena A to Z guide for your game.

Can I tailgate at Crypto.com Arena?

Not in the lots here. If you are meeting people somewhere else, add that as a step and everything before it moves earlier.

What can I bring in?

Assume the limit is small. Check the arena's own page for current sizes. The timing risk is being turned around at the door and walking back to the car: the walk twice and a second trip through the queue.

Flying in? The airport pages. Taking Amtrak? The station pages. No stadium listed? The tailgate timeline is the same plan without a particular lot.

The countdown to tip-off, on your Lock Screen

Start the plan in the app, and the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island show the time left, with a bar that fills as each step passes.

Glance at it on the walk in without opening the app.

Every step also gets its own alert, and sharing the plan gives whoever is driving the same leave time, with alerts on their phone.

Live Activities are part of Premium, a one-time unlock.

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