Coachella now even has its own basketball team. A day after we reported there’s still bad blood between moguls Barry Diller and Irving Azoff over the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger in 2010, Azoff made his latest business move — bringing the LA Lakers’ G League team to Coachella.
The Coachella Valley Lakers will play their home games at Acrisure Arena. Azoff, the veteran Eagles’ manager (the band, not the team), is a senior partner of Oak View Group, which operates Acrisure. “I have enjoyed a long time relationship with Jerry and Jeanie Buss, Lon Rosen and Linda Rambis,” Azoff said in a statement. “And I am beyond thrilled to have the Coachella Valley Lakers call OVG’s Acrisure Arena their home. Go Lakers.”
Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff is bringing Los Angeles Lakers’ G League team to Coachella. Los Angeles Times via Getty Images The team originated as the LA D-Fenders in 2006 at the STAPLES Center in DTLA before later moving to the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo.
Acrisure is also home of the American Hockey League’s Coachella Valley Firebirds.
Azoff’s spokesman told us of the Lakers deal: “Azoff’s reason for doing it? The AHL hockey Firebirds (currently in the playoffs) are the most successful minor league hockey team is the U.S. (Hockey in the desert? Yes.) And [he] believes the Coachella Valley will support professional basketball as well.”
