ALL-STAR EVENTS ADD TO L.A.'S AURA IMPACT ON CITY MORE THAN JUST ECONOMIC BOON.

Byline: Joe Stevens Staff Writer

Celebrities will be out in droves. Limousines, red carpets and lots of ``bling-bling'' will fill Los Angeles.

All-Star weekend has arrived in L.A. In most cities, this big event would be a magnet for tourism.

However, L.A. is used to such spectacles. While All-Star weekend is important, it isn't more significant than other recent events. Rather, All-Star weekend is another pop culture celebration highlighting why L.A. is considered a center of entertainment.

The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates that this week's All-Star events will bring $30 million to the city. The bureau arrived at that estimate by looking at last year's effect on the same event in Atlanta.

The Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce did a study that determined $34.3 million was brought into Georgia and $27 million was brought into Atlanta because of All-Star weekend. The numbers could end up higher for L.A., but the economic impact is only part of the weekend's overall picture.

``An event like this does a lot for the city,'' said Carol Martinez, associate vice president of the LACVB. ``Tourism is L.A.'s No. 2 industry (behind entertainment). And this puts L.A. on TV worldwide, and it will show how beautiful the weather here is in February. People on the East Coast will be watching and freezing, and they'll look at this as a vacation spot.''

On Sunday, 212 countries will televise the All-Star Game, according to the NBA. There will be 325 international media members from 41 countries covering the game.

Those numbers may be staggering, but other L.A. events have had as big or bigger impact. According to the LACVB, the Academy Awards had an impact of $60.5 million, possibly double that of All-Star weekend.

Last year's Grammy Awards brought in $26 million, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Van Gogh exhibit $122 million and the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup $30 million.

Yet those comparisons shouldn't diminish All-Star weekend's significance.

``The people who come from out of town are comparable to those who go to the Super Bowl,'' said David Simon, president of the L.A. Sports Council. ``They have significant job titles. They stay at high-end accommodations and eat at high-end restaurants. It's great for L.A. to host a big-time event like this.''

Typical fans are basically shut out of seeing the game because tickets are not made available to them. Most season-ticket holders for the Lakers and Clippers were shut out, too. Each team got approximately 1,100 tickets and held a lottery for them.

Some fans are upset about not getting a chance to see the game. But economically, the NBA's system is a boost for tourism.

``Only about 25 percent of seats are controlled by the teams (and Staples Center),'' Simon said. ``That means 75 percent of the crowd is coming from out of town.''

The weekend is also a boon for the Anschutz Entertainment Group, which controls Staples Center and paid the NBA $500,000 to hold the event. The AEG also believes All-Star weekend is a big-time event, but isn't the arena's biggest.

``Number one is the Democratic National Convention,'' said Michael Roth, an AEG spokesman. ``Then, it's probably a coin toss between Sunday's Grammy Awards and All-Star weekend.''

To have the Grammy Awards and All-Star weekend within 10 days of each other presented a logistical puzzle for AEG. Each event brought its own complex sound system and complex staging. Arena workers are used to converting Staples Center for the Lakers, Clippers, Kings, Avengers and concerts, but this project was on a different level.

Staples Center also has held four consecutive Grammy Awards, two WTA Tour championships, Pacific-10 Conference basketball championships and much more. Madison Square Garden often is referred to as ``The World's Most Famous Arena,'' but in this millennium, the 4-year-old Staples could make a claim of being the nation's premier arena.

``That's not for us to say,'' Roth said. ``But if you look at the events we have had, another arena in the country could not have done it. There has not been an event we've gone after that hasn't come to Staples.''

Joe Stevens, [phone]

joe.stevens(at)presstelegram.com