J.A. Adande has a piece today at ESPN.com on one of L.A.’s newest must-see nightspots. (At least for 48 minutes, three times per week.)

You won’t find this club in a reconditioned room hidden in some grimy Hollywood back alley. The space resides in Staples Center, where nightclub mogul Sam Nazarian bought out eight upper level suites for $1M to create the venue. A little background from SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL:

In its first year the lounge will be open to courtside seat holders and suite owners. As part of the deal, AEG sold a block of tickets for Lakers, Clippers and Kings games and other events to SBE to distribute to its best customers to hang out at the new club, said Lee Zeidman, the arena’s executive vice president and general manager.

So did Adande give the club the usual ‘this is cool!‘ review? To his credit, no. Some of that probably had to do with club management not giving him an automatic pass. But I’m guessing that’s just the kind of exclusivity mystique Nazarian wants fostered to lure more a-listed high rollers. Read more…

Unless you aren’t living here in California, you don’t know that our State Assembly and Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, recently crammed the largest one-year state tax increase in U.S. history down the throats of us unsuspecting Golden State folk. An astonishing $12 billion dollar increase on top of what we already pay. Sales tax in my state is now 11%. Yep, YOU READ THAT RIGHT, 11 PERCENT. *reaches for lube*

(Taxpayer lube to fund Leiweke (l) future LA Kings free agent signings?)

Life has never been tougher for Californians, but thankfully we have our wonderful sports teams to make life here a little more bearable. Teams like the NHL Los Angeles Kings, the Lakers, the Clippers and the Golden State Warriors.

Oh, wait. Read more…

Over the last few years, American sports leagues have done quite a bit to establish a market around the world instead of just in the United States. In the NBA, David Stern has made no secret of his desire to have an NBA team in Europe, the NFL has played regular season games in London the last two seasons, and MLB has it’s World Baseball Classic while toying with the idea of starting a franchise in Mexico City.  The globalization of American sports leagues seems to be inevitable, but at the same time it’s always felt as though it was still a ways away. Well, apparently it may not be as far off as we think.

Tim Leiweke runs the entertainment company AEG, which is basically England’s answer to what Disney is in America: A company that was founded as an entertainment company that has branched into sports. In America Disney owns ESPN, and in London AEG owns sports franchises like the L.A. Galaxy and over 100 multi-purpose venues across the world. According to Leiweke, one of the major American sports leagues is going to have a team in London by 2011.

Read more…