LOS ANGELES — An era of ESPN television production in downtown Los Angeles is coming to an end this week.
ESPN is in its final days at its longtime Los Angeles Production Center at L.A. Live, closing the studio space it has occupied across the street from Crypto.com Arena since 2009 and consolidating its West Coast production operations at the NFL Network facility at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, adjacent to SoFi Stadium.
The move brings ESPN's primary Los Angeles television operations under the same roof as NFL Network and NFL RedZone and represents another significant step in the integration of ESPN and NFL Media following the completion of their landmark transaction earlier this year. ESPN acquired NFL Network and certain other league media assets, while the NFL received a 10% equity stake in ESPN.
“We are announcing the creation of a consolidated West Coast production center at Hollywood Park in Inglewood,” ESPN said in a statement announcing the move. “Featuring state-of-the-art technology, this facility will continue to serve as the home of NFL Network and NFL RedZone while also adding NBA Today and WNBA Countdown.”
“As part of this process, we are closing our LA Production Center at L.A. Live, relocating production employees to Hollywood Park,” the statement continued. “We look forward to all of ESPN’s LA-based studio content originating from a single location, further enhancing creativity and collaboration, with expansion possible in the future.”
Approximately 160 employees have continued to work out of the L.A. Live facility. Employees connected to studio productions are relocating to Hollywood Park, while others are moving to a Disney facility in Glendale. No layoffs were planned as a direct result of the relocation, according to reports when the consolidation was announced last month.
The closure ends a 17-year run for ESPN at L.A. Live and closes an important chapter in the network's history on the West Coast.
ESPN's Los Angeles Production Center went online in April 2009 as one of the original tenants of the newly developed L.A. Live entertainment district. The 129,000-square-foot facility included two studios and was designed to give ESPN a significant television production presence on the West Coast to complement its longtime headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut.
Its signature program for years was the late-night West Coast edition of SportsCenter, which debuted from Los Angeles in April 2009 with Stan Verrett and Neil Everett behind the anchor desk. Linda Cohn later became another prominent face of the Los Angeles edition. The show gave ESPN a nightly presence in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, steps from the home of the Lakers and Kings and near many of the city's biggest sporting events.
The network ended the Los Angeles edition of SportsCenter last year and shifted the program back to Bristol as part of an effort to centralize production. Everett had previously departed ESPN in 2023, while Verrett and Cohn have also since left the network.
Even after SportsCenter left, the L.A. Live facility remained an important home for ESPN's basketball coverage, most notably NBA Today, NBA Countdown and WNBA Countdown. Those productions will now originate from Hollywood Park, putting ESPN's basketball and football studio operations together at one sprawling sports and entertainment campus.
The relocation is also notable because ESPN's new West Coast home is becoming increasingly central to the network's future.
The NFL Network facility, which opened in 2021, includes approximately 75,000 square feet of studio and production space across the street from SoFi Stadium. ESPN assumed control of the facility as part of its deal with the NFL, and ESPN executives began working alongside NFL Network employees in Inglewood earlier this year as the two operations were integrated.
ESPN has already begun using the Inglewood facility for programming beyond NFL Network. The network produced live English- and Spanish-language studio shows from the building during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, including coverage surrounding the eight World Cup matches played at SoFi Stadium.
The move also comes at an important time for ESPN and the NFL. SoFi Stadium will host Super Bowl LXI on Feb. 14, 2027, when ESPN and ABC will televise the Super Bowl for the first time. ESPN has already described this season as its “Year of the Super Bowl” and has been steadily increasing the integration of ESPN and NFL Network programming ahead of the game.
Having ESPN's West Coast production headquarters directly next to the stadium gives the network a built-in base for what is expected to be one of the largest productions in company history. ESPN has already used Hollywood Park and SoFi Stadium for special programming leading into Super Bowl LXI, and the consolidated facility provides room for further expansion.
While ESPN's television production presence is leaving L.A. Live, ESPN LA 710 will remain in downtown Los Angeles. The radio station will continue broadcasting from the Good Karma Brands offices at L.A. Live. Good Karma Brands acquired the station from ESPN as part of a larger transaction announced in 2021.
For ESPN, the move represents both the end of its downtown Los Angeles era and the beginning of a significantly different West Coast operation.
For nearly two decades, ESPN's Los Angeles identity was tied to L.A. Live and the arena across the street. Beginning now, that identity will shift about 10 miles southwest to Hollywood Park, where ESPN will share a production home with NFL Network just steps from SoFi Stadium — a building that will be at the center of some of the biggest events on ESPN's calendar in the years ahead.