Trying to eat green in Staples Center

LOS ANGELES – After working on a story for The Cat Scan on eating green in McKale Center, I wondered how things differed in a professional arena in a big market.

My trip to Staples Center in Los Angeles this week to cover UA basketball in the Pac-10 Tournament provided the perfect opportunity to find out.

But like everything else in LA, it was complicated getting any answers.

I spoke to a worker at the media buffet, who brought me somebody who deals with food at Staples Center, who brought me Staples Center executive chef Matthew Herter. He gave me the number of Patti Green, the sales and marketing director of Levy Restaurants in the West Region, who apparently is the only person the company wants talking about its food.

Then when I called her on Friday, Saturday and Monday all I got was her answering machine, so unfortunately I won’t have an official source on what Staples Center brings to the table and how it differs from other major arenas.

Although UA concessions manager Brett Brestel told me people don’t care about eating healthy at sporting events, I wondered how things differed in a much bigger venue in a much bigger market.

Besides the fact it offers many more choices, the eye test says Staples isn’t much different from McKale.

Both stadiums feature your typical assortment of hot dogs, pretzels and nachos, which are literally the staples of arena fare. It seems like every stadium has that one concession stand that keeps repeating over and over with these typical food choices.

Beyond that, California Pizza Kitchen has a deal to be the exclusive pizza supplier of Staples Center and represents a chain not found in McKale Center. I enjoyed the pizza there but not the price.

The arena also sells sushi, a delicacy that certainly cannot be found anywhere near McKale, but the healthiest offering could be deli sandwiches it offers along with the typical concession food and a Mexican food stop.

Besides the concessions, the stadium hosts the AMEX Arena Club, Lexus Club and Fox Sports Sky Box, as well as the Royal Room for season-ticket holders

I will keep trying to reach Green for a future blog where she will likely be able to enlighten me on some green options in Staples Center, but from my walk around the main concourse, it didn’t look too different from McKale save for the increase in choices expected from a major arena.

Maybe Brestel was right about sports arenas not being a place where people want to eat green.

Keep reading this blog to find out about green eating choices in the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.