The Brief

My first Los Angeles Sparks game was so much more fun than I’d expected. In truth, that’s in large part because I really didn’t know what to expect. Until the last couple of years, the WNBA wasn’t something I paid much attention to.

Last year, I watched some of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament for the first time, and did this year too, with my sister. It was super exciting and got me interested in the WNBA too.

I went to my first game this summer, and the Sparks, despite being in last place in the league, beat the top-ranked New York Liberty. I got to see incredibly talented players who I’d just watched win medals at the Paris Olympics — like Sabrina Ionescu, Brianna Stewart, and Dearica Hamby — practice and play in person.

Then, there were the celebrity sightings — Leslie Jones, Jason Sudeikis, and Rosie O’Donnell among them. The atmosphere was like a party, with a DJ and an amazing dance crew whose members are all over 40. And Jones, who I knew was a mega Sparks fan, was up on the Jumbotron screen in the fourth quarter to hype up the crowd.

Seeing fans wearing shirts that read, “Everyone watches women’s sports,” and “I watched women’s basketball before it was cool,” I kept wondering why it had taken me so long to take notice of women’s professional sports.

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#311: The 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games have wrapped, and right now in the sports world (or at least here in the U.S.) a lot of the focus is shifting to the start of football season. But today on How To LA, we’re focusing on the increased attention that women’s sports have seen in recent years, and how that's playing out in L.A. Helping us do that are some Angel City ultra fans, the club's co-founder and president, some long-time Sparks fans, and Sparks players Azurá Stevens and Dearica Hamby.

Angel City fans, Sparks players, and renewed interest in women's sports

#311: The 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games have wrapped, and right now in the sports world (or at least here in the U.S.) a lot of the focus is shifting to the start of football season. But today on How To LA, we’re focusing on the increased attention that women’s sports have seen in recent years, and how that's playing out in L.A. Helping us do that are some Angel City ultra fans, the club's co-founder and president, some long-time Sparks fans, and Sparks players Azurá Stevens and Dearica Hamby.

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A fan in the making

For so many reasons, I should have been a fan much sooner.

In 1997, when the WNBA debuted and I was a preteen, I was on my grade school’s girls basketball team. Admittedly, I didn’t really love playing the sport myself. I played basketball (and volleyball and softball), mostly, because my friends were doing it and because I had fun being part of a team.

Growing up in Anaheim, I went to Angels’ baseball games with my friends and family. I was excited when a Rams football player visited our second grade class and when we took a field trip to see the Ducks hockey players practice. But the only women’s pro sports I remember watching were gymnastics or figure skating, rarely, on TV.

In an old yearbook I found, the text over our girls’ basketball team photo read, “Future WNBA Players.” In reality though, the WNBA wasn’t really on my radar until recently.

Me at the peak of my basketball career at St. Boniface Parish School in Anaheim, CA.

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Courtesy of Monica Bushman

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And I’m not alone when it comes to feeling like I’ve only recently woken up to how fun it can be to watch women’s basketball, and women’s sports in general.

Increased attention for women’s sports

Fan interest in women’s sports has increased over the last decade and seen a notable uptick in the last couple of years — from record-setting viewership of the FIFA Women’s World Cup final back in 2015, to 2024’s record-breaking women’s NCAA college basketball championship game, which drew a larger TV audience than the men’s game for the first time ever.

That’s had a spillover effect for the WNBA, with superstar rookies — like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese — drawing big crowds and boosting ratings this year. When it comes to the Sparks specifically, the team saw a 30% increase in season ticket sales this year compared with 2023.

Interest in the National Women’s Soccer League is still making gains too. Soccer fans successfully rallied to bring the Angel City Football Club to L.A. in 2020, and the 2023 Women’s World Cup generated the most revenue in the tournament’s history.

This summer, I met a wide range of Sparks and Angel City fans — some who were new to supporting the teams, and others who’d been fans of women’s pro basketball and soccer for decades.

In Angel City FC’s case, since the team itself has only been playing since 2022, really everyone is a pretty recent fan, though many of them are longtime soccer-lovers (including some fans of L.A.'s last, short-lived women's pro soccer team, the Los Angeles Sol). And even in the short time that ACFC has been around, it’s seen a lot of growth in terms of both fan and investor attention.

A sign in the supporter group section at BMO Stadium before Angel City Football Club's match against the Chicago Red Stars this September.

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Monica Bushman / LAist

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As a newcomer, I expected to feel a little out of place heading out to my first pro games, but the atmosphere and fans at both BMO Stadium (which Angel City shares with Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Football Club) and Crypto.com Arena (which the Sparks share with the Lakers and Kings) were super welcoming.

As Angel City FC’s co-founder and president Julie Uhrman put it before a recent match, “women’s sports fans are the best sports fans in the world.”

Her reasoning?

“Because historically, and even to today, we make it really hard for them to be sports fans. We make it hard for them to find the games on television. We make it hard for them to come to games. And that's changing,” Uhrman says. “The reality is they've always been there. We're just making it easier now.”

As for when Uhrman noticed a change: “It began, I believe, following the 2019 U.S. Women's National Team World Cup where we won again. We saw it again at the World Cup this past year and again with the Olympics where when you get the opportunity to see these female athletes, you see how incredibly talented they are and then you realize they play in your backyard.”

The ‘ultra fans’

Angel City is also very intentional about creating a welcoming environment. “That's one thing that I'm so proud of the Angel City team for creating is an environment that is fun, inclusive, diverse, and welcoming,” Uhrman says. “So whether you're family, or you're older, or you're part of the LGBTQ community, everyone feels like they have a place here.”

The community feeling, Uhrman added, all begins with the team’s supporters, or “ultra fans.”

Ruby Badio with the ACFC supporter group Mosaic 1781.

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Monica Bushman / LAist

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Angel City has six independent supporter groups, all with their own group names, logos, and social media accounts. They have their own section in the stadium (with seats that are less expensive because you don’t get assigned seats and many fans choose to stand). Supporter groups come up with chants for the team, and some of them play drums during the match to hype up the crowd.

Outside of the matches, the supporter groups organize tailgates and plan game watches, different activities, and community service events.

All of the members I spoke with were friendly and welcoming. Ruby Badio with supporter group Mosaic 1781 told me her advice to anyone who wants to join, is to check out the groups’ social media accounts, send them a DM, or just come to a game early and meet people in person. Mosaic 1781 even has a buddy system that they use for newcomers who might be coming to a game solo.

“That way you don’t feel alone,” Badio said. “We kind of teach you the ropes.”

The player perspective

When it comes to the Sparks, as a member of the media, I was able to talk to a couple of players ahead of a recent game. I wanted to get their perspective on the recent renewed interest in the league and ask what fan support means to them.

Azurá Stevens, who’s been in the WNBA since 2018 and with the Sparks since 2023, said she’s seen an increase in interest over the years since she was a rookie: ”Definitely in the viewership and just how much attention we're getting as a league…It's exciting.”

Her fellow Sparks forward Dearica Hamby agreed. Hamby started out in the WNBA in 2015 playing for the San Antonio Stars, and like Stevens, has also been with the Sparks since 2023.

“I’ve kind of been on both sides of the spectrum,” Hamby said. “I played in San Antonio for a few years. We were at the AT&T Center [now the Frost Bank Center], and there were literally like 200 people in there. So to kind of be a part of the growth and to literally live it, it's been a humbling experience.”

When describing the support she’s seen from Sparks fans, Hamby said: “I think they're definitely loyal. You know, we're going through a rebuild right now, but we still see the same court side people every game.”

At the game I went to, I met some Sparks fans who — like me — had only started coming to games this year and others who’ve been supporters for decades.

Debbie Johnson told me she’s had season tickets for 20 years and encourages anyone who hasn’t been to a Sparks game in person, to check it out for themselves.

“The players are exciting and I just enjoy being at the game,” Johnson said. “It’s been tremendous. So much fun and joy.”

What to know if you're a newbie fan

We asked our LAist followers on Facebook for their advice to new fans about attending games at BMO Stadium or Crypto.com Arena. Here’s some of their tips:

When heading to BMO Stadium…

• “Best food at BMO is right outside the stadium. There’s usually a food cart serving amazing birria tacos outside the northeast entrance. Birrieria ChiVazquez.” — Arik Kadosh
• “If you do drive to BMO avoid the MLK exit on the southbound 110. It is so slow getting off there that you can easily miss the beginning of your game. Parking a few blocks away is much cheaper than using the ‘official’ lots.” — Jessica Yarger
• “Best way to get to BMO is by taking the E Line (formerly Expo Line). Why hassle with parking?” — Brenda Thomas

When heading to Crypto.com…

• “Call it Staples [Center] and take the Metro!” — Peter Prietto-Murray
• “You can park for cheap at the Fig at 7th shopping center if you validate your ticket at Target, then walk across the street to the 7th St Metro Center, where it's a short ride to BMO, Crypto or the Coliseum. There are also some decent places to eat at Fig at 7th” — Dan Saborio

My tip: Remember to check bag policies! BMO requires clear bags and Crypto.com only allows small clutches.

While the Sparks’ last home game is today (Sept. 17), there’s also an away game on Sept. 19. And there’s still time to catch an Angel City match this season. You can check their schedule here.

And if you’ve never been to a game before, take a lesson from a latecomer like me — after you do, you’ll wonder why you hadn’t sooner.

It’s about the size of a park bench and made of steel and wood. The bench’s arm rests are formed by the letters “L” and “A” in a design that’s unmistakable to any sports fan. But the welder-artist who created it says it’s not a Dodgers bench.

“This is about civic pride, L.A. pride. I made a design statement saying that it has nothing affiliated with the Dodgers,” said Steve Campos.

Campos grew up near Dodger Stadium, raised by parents who were die-hard Dodgers fans. So much, that they named him after Steve Garvey but that legacy doesn’t keep him from confronting how the Dodgers benefitted from the mass displacement of working-class people from Chavez Ravine after World War Two. That’s why he calls it an L.A. Bench, and not a Dodgers Bench.

The logo may be synonymous with the city's beloved baseball team, but the design of the interlocking letters was used by the L.A. Angels minor league baseball team before the Dodgers moved to L.A. in 1958.

“The monogram was here before the Dodgers,” Campos said.

A second-generation welder

Welding is the Campos family business. His father created gates and security bars for windows and doors for L.A. clients. That was the foundation for the work Campos has done for two decades since graduating from Lincoln High School, L.A. Trade Tech College, and enrolling in a summer program at Art Center in Pasadena.

The inspiration for the L.A. Bench came last year while he was playing around in his shop creating versions of the L.A. logo. A friend he hangs with at Echo Park Lake asked Campos to make him a piece of furniture.

“I was trying to figure out what my friend Curly wanted. He liked Dodgers and drinking and getting into fights, so I was like, 'Let me make something with the LA monogram,'” he said.

Welder-artist Steve Campos created whimsical steel sculptures with the LA logo.

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Courtesy Steve Campos

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It didn’t design itself. He said he had to lengthen the legs on the “A” and lean the back of the “L” in order to make the bench functional. In the process, he’s made a piece of furniture with a ubiquitous logo that he’s embedded with his own L.A. pride, as well as city history past and present.

LA civic pride travels to Japan

Campos vacationed in Japan the last week of April and took advantage of the trip to reach out to people who may be interested in the L.A. Bench. He was caught off guard by people’s reaction when he showed them pictures of it.

“They look at it and they go, 'Oh, Ohtani bench,'” he said.

For them, it’s still a bench embedded with pride, he said, but centered around Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, an icon in his native Japan.

Campos has made four L.A. benches and is selling them fully assembled, he said, for $2,500 each — taking into account his labor and how costly the raw materials have become. For now, he’s offering the metal parts as a package for $500, which requires the buyer to purchase the wood for the seat and the back — an easy process, he said.

While he has no plans to mass produce the L.A. Bench, he does have one goal in mind that shows how hard it is for him to separate L.A. civic pride and the Dodgers.

“I would love to get a couple of them installed at Dodger Stadium,” he said.

The Venice Boardwalk after sunset has generally been a no-go zone for tourists and locals alike, as the beachside bars and restaurants close on the early side and safety is often an issue. Now, a group of artists is out to bring some vibrancy to the creative neighborhood with a series of new installations that will include live evening performances – and even a “Venice Opera House.”

“Let's play with light and let's play with sound and give people a reason to come to the Boardwalk after sundown,” said artist and entrepreneur Stefan Ashkenazy, who is curating the project and owns the buildings housing them. “I mean, let's just be open 24 hours a day.”

The concept doesn’t have an official name yet, but he’s been calling it “See World.”

Artist James Ostrer's space looks out from a bed through the fence to the ocean at Venice Beach.

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Laura Hertzfeld

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LAist

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William Attaway, a longtime Venice artist, created a gallery space filled with various paintings and sculptures.

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Laura Hertzfeld

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LAist

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The pair of modern buildings on the Venice Boardwalk at Thornton Ave. – with their big balconies, floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and seven open garage-style retail spaces – have sat mostly empty since Snapchat vacated their beachside offices in 2019. Ashkenazy recently bought the building and recruited artists to fill those front-facing spaces with creative work until a full-time tenant comes in.

Over the past several weeks the installations have been created in real-time, in public.

All of the projects are loosely along the theme of “home,” with each artist claiming a “room” in the two buildings that stretch across a full block on the Boardwalk. Several local Venice artists are featured, including William Attaway, whose intricate mosaic work is recognizable on the Venice public restrooms along the beach. Attaway’s space features a floating larger-than-life-sized statue and various works in a mini-gallery. In the next room is Robin Murez’s pieces, featuring carved wooden seats from her beloved neighborhood Venice Flying Carousel.

Ashkenazy is no stranger to wild (and wildly successful) art ideas. He’s the owner of the Petit Ermitage hotel in West Hollywood, a longtime haven for visiting artists, and the founder of the decade-old Bombay Beach Biennale, where artists install all kinds of work in an annual event near the Salton Sea. Many of the artists from that community are featured at the Venice project.

A "Venice Opera House" will host pop-up music events throughout the summer.

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Laura Hertfeldz

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LAist

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New York-based artist Greg Haberny's paintings on the wall of his Venice space.

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Laura Hertzfeld

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LAist

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New York-based artist Greg Haberny and London-based artist James Ostrer have brought some of their work in the Bombay Beach Biennale to the Venice project. Their windows on the Boardwalk both speak to a child-like sense of wonder and creativity.

“I think it's just kind of exploring and playing a little bit, to have the freedom to be able to do that,” Haberny says of his imagined child’s bedroom space, which includes a fort made out of puffy cheese balls. “It's a big space, too.
It's beautiful.”

Ostrer is experimenting with a performance art idea where he sits in bed amongst a room full of his own artwork, which he describes as “happy art with an edge.” Looking out at the ocean from the bed, he’s invited passersby to sit and have chats with him about his work or anything else they want to talk about.

“It’s a very intimate space, so you have a different kind of conversation,” he said. “I use art to channel human creativity, and [talk about] dark things.”

While there are open fences that block off the spaces, they aren’t sealed up at night. Both Ashkenazy and the team of artists seemed open to the idea that anything could happen and that the installations are a conversation with the public – and with that comes some risk.

Greg Haberny (right) works with his assistants on an installation featuring kid-inspired graffiti art and a "cheesy puff" fort.

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Laura Hertzfeld

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LAist

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“I don't really know if I [would] say worried, but I guess it's just the cost of doing business,” Haberny said. “I don't really make things to get damaged or broken, sure. But I have done [things like] burned all my paintings and then made paint out of ash.”

While he’s felt safe – and even slept overnight in the installation – Ostrer has been collaborating with a local female artist who performs in a pig mask in front of his installation some nights. Watching her perform, he said, has taught him about the vulnerability of women in public spaces like the Boardwalk. “I've started to, on a very fractional level, have seen how scary that is. Because I've sat in the bed behind her performing at the front here… the way in which men are approaching her and shrieking at her … it's shocking.”

Ashkenazy says he will keep the artists in the space, potentially rotating new ones in, until a fulltime tenant takes over.

“This is an experiment … and after acquiring the building, the intention wasn't, ‘let's open a bunch of public art spaces,’ he said. “It is kind of …what the building wanted and listening to what the Boardwalk needed. Let's play, let's have the artists that we love and appreciate have a space to play and engage and give the locals and the visitors to the Boardwalk something to experience.”

A new trail across the beloved natural area of Elephant Hill in Northeast Los Angeles is officially opening this weekend.

The route is years in the making, and it's a big milestone in the decades-long conservation efforts to preserve this local jewel in the community of El Sereno.

The hiking trail connects one side of Elephant Hill to the other — from the corner of Pullman Street and Harriman Avenue all the way across to Lathrop Street.

It's 0.75 miles in total, but packs a punch.

"It's a pretty straight shot, but because of the terrain — the trail is kind of twisty and curvy. There's switchbacks — and great views," Elva Yañez, board president of the nonprofit Save Elephant Hill, said.

People have always been able to access the 110-acre green space, but Yañez said the new trail provides a safe and easy way to navigate the steep hillsides.

The El Sereno nonprofit has been working for two decades to preserve the land. Illegal dumping and off-roading have damaged the open space over the years. And the majority of the 110 acres are privately owned by an estimated 200 individual owners.

Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) joined the efforts in 2018, spurred by a $700,000 grant from Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District, in part, to build the trail. The local agency received some $2 million in grants from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to add to the 10 acres of Elephant Hill it manages and conserves. This year, MCRA acquired an additional 12 parcels — or about 2.4 acres.

And the spiffy new footpath — with trail signage, information kiosks and landscape boulders — is not just a long-sought-for victory but a beginning in a sense.

"We know that it means a lot to the community," Sarah Kevorkian, who oversees the trail project for MRCA, said. "We're wrapping up the trail, but it really feels like the beginning of all that is to come."

A hint of that vision already exists — for hikers traversing the new route, courtesy of Test Plot, the L.A.-based nonprofit that works to revitalize depleted lands.

"They're able to see at the end of the trail, at the 'test plot' — exactly what a restored Elephant Hill would look like," Yañez said.

Here's a preview:

A coalition of residents from across the San Gabriel Valley are mobilizing over a battery storage project and possibly more industrial development in the City of Industry they say could pollute communities next door.

A protest is scheduled today in neighboring Rowland Heights, targeting a 400-megawatt battery energy storage facility sited on about 9 acres that was approved by the City of Industry leaders in January.

Such Battery Energy Storage Systems, or BESS, are used to keep the power grid stable, especially as output from renewable energy sources like solar and wind fluctuate. But fires involving lithium batteries at some sites have heightened environmental and public health fears.

Because of the City of Industry’s unusual, sprawling shape stretching along the 60 Freeway, it borders on more than a dozen communities, meaning what happens there can have far-reaching impact.

“Pollution does not end right at the border,” said Andrew Yip, an organizer with No Data Centers SGV Coalition. “Pollution travels.”

Some local activists with the Puente Hills Community Preservation Association have challenged the approval of the battery facility under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Beyond environmental concerns, locals have also been frustrated with how decisions are made by officials in the City of Industry, a municipality that’s almost entirely zoned for industrial use and has less than 300 residents.

Organizers say they’ve struggled to get direct responses from city officials whom they say have replaced regular meetings with special meetings, which under state law require less advance notice.

A city spokesperson has not responded to requests for comment.

The so-called Marici Energy Storage System Facility would be run by Aypa Power. The fact that the battery storage developer is owned by the private equity giant Blackstone, a major investor in AI and data centers, has only fueled concerns that a battery storage facility would lay the groundwork for data center development.

A request for comment from Aypa was not returned.

Today’s protest is taking place at Peter F. Schabarum Regional Park in Rowland Heights across the street from the Puente Hills Mall, a largely vacant “dead” mall, which activists fear could be redeveloped into a data center and bring higher utility costs and greater air and noise pollution.

Yip pointed out that industrial developments make a lot of money for the City of Industry.

“But none of these surrounding communities receive any of those benefits,” Yip said. “Yet we have to put up with all the harmful effects and impacts from this city that does all this development without really reaching out.”