No Raining on Parade: It Will Be Wednesday

Laker fans will be able to turn up the volume in celebration one more time Wednesday morning, at a downtown parade and ceremony that will mark the first such event in Los Angeles since the Dodgers won the World Series in 1988.

The festivities celebrating the Lakers’ NBA championship will begin at 11 a.m. at the Department of Water and Power building, 111 N. Hope St., where Mayor Riordan will preside at a short ceremony.

Laker players, family and team personnel will then board double-decker buses for the parade, which will start at 11:15 a.m. at 2nd and Figueroa and move south.

The parade portion of the celebration will end at Staples Center, 11th and Figueroa, where the Lakers will be escorted to the Arena Club Balcony, from where more speeches and presentations will be made. Neither spectators nor media will be allowed inside Staples Center.

Below the City View Terrace, in the Star Plaza area of Staples on the street level, the Laker girls and a band will entertain. Fans will be directed to parking lots 2 and 3, across 11th Street on the north side of Staples. Jumbo-screen televisions will carry the proceedings.

Michael Roth, director of Communications at Staples, said that estimates of spectator turnout have ranged from 50,000 to 200,000.

“It’s just impossible to know,” he said.

The event will be jointly sponsored by Staples, the Lakers and Fox Sports Network. It will be televised live by Fox Sports Net from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and repeated on Fox Sports Net 2 that night at 9.