What Bruce Springsteen teaches L.A.

Bruce Springsteen played Los Angeles Thursday night (with a second concert here scheduled tonight). There is a lesson in the fact that when one of the most enduring draws in rock 'n' roll comes to town, he performs not at the dazzling Staples Center but at the dumpy Sports Arena.

Springsteen tried Staples Center -- he was its very first act, in 1999 -- and hated it. At one point during that show, The Boss looked out from the stage at the towering structure and complained: "Too many sky boxes!" Addressing the fans in three levels of luxury suites, he said: "It's important for you folks up there ... to come out of your rooms to see a rock show."

A few years later, on another concert tour, Springsteen and his E Street Band performed at the Forum. Springsteen praised the building's old-school charm: "No luxury boxes!"

The Sports Arena is even older-school. Half a century ago, after it hosted the Democratic convention that nominated John F. Kennedy for president, Theodore H. White wrote in "The Making of the President 1960" of a "new arena, glistening with its glass panes and ceramic tile.'' But recently the quote most famously connected with the arena was this from basketball star Charles Barkley: "OK, I want to say something positive. It's positively a dump.''

It's not a dump. Despite its shortage of amenities, it remains a serviceable arena for concerts and sports, the same as the next-door Coliseum, nearby Dodger Stadium, and the Pasadena Rose Bowl. Though the NBA's Clippers and the USC basketball teams have moved out, UCLA basketball used the Sports Arena last season while on-campus Pauley Pavilion was being renovated.

This is a reminder that too often these days, arenas and stadiums -- and would-be stadiums, such as AEG's proposed downtown football stadium -- are judged by their capacity to enhance revenue for developers and team owners, in part through the sale of plush seats and suites to the super-wealthy.

While it is all well and good for fans to wish their teams to make a lot of money and to spend it on winning players, they should realize that the average ticket-buyer probably will enjoy the show no less in one of the old-fashioned buildings than in a state-of-the-art palace -- and most likely will pay less for the seat.

The sellout crowd at the Bruce Springsteen concert Thursday night certainly didn't mind being at the Sports Arena instead of Staples Center. In fact, it preferred the intimacy and history within those dull walls.

Stadium builders and the politicians who coddle them should realize that bigger and fancier isn't necessarily better.