After the Los Angeles Lakers won their 17th NBA Championship, they had to re-arrange their banners within Staples Center. With two NBA teams, a WNBA team, and an NHL team sharing the arena, space within the rafters can get kind of crowded and the unfortunate casualty has been Taylor Swift.
Five years ago, Staples Center had put up a banner for the pop singer/songwriter for having the most sold out performances in the arena. A couple days ago, Arash Markazi noticed the missing Swift banner as a new temporary banner for the Lakers’ 2019-20 title win caused other banners to be moved around. According to The Washington Post, a more permanent banner is set to be unveiled when fans can once again attend Lakers games.
It looks like the Taylor Swift banner has been removed at Staples Center. pic.twitter.com/YBbQvZbcpc
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) December 23, 2020
Normally, taking down a Taylor Swift banner would only be a concern for her fans but some fans of the LA Kings might interpret this as great news for their team.
Before the Swift banner went up in 2015, the Kings had won two Stanley Cup titles in a three-year span. In the six seasons after the banner went up, the Kings only had two playoff appearances. Some Kings fans blamed that on Swift’s banner and considered it to be a jinx. The Kings started covering up the banner in 2019 in response to fan complaints but that didn’t seem to work as the team finished last and next to last in the Western Conference the past two seasons.
The ultimate fate of Swift’s banner might reside within the concourse of Staples Center. According to Markazi, there might be an “interactive display for fans” that “celebrates her 16 sold out shows and the night [Kobe] Bryant joined her on stage to unveil her banner.” Maybe that’s the ultimate solution. Kings fans don’t need to have the banner in the rafters while Swift’s fans can take pics with the banner anytime they visit Staples Center.
[The Washington Post/Arash Markazi Substack]
