The Los Angeles Lakers announced Thursday, April 30, that they are moving their NBA G League team to the Coachella Valley to play at Acrisure Arena starting next season.
The team will be called the Coachella Valley Lakers.
The G League is the name of the NBA’s developmental league and the Lakers team, known in the 2025-26 season as the South Bay Lakers, played their home games at the UCLA Health and Training Center in El Segundo which had room for 750 fans.
Acrisure Arena, home to the American Hockey League’s Coachella Valley Firebirds, seats 10,100 fans for sporting events like basketball and hockey. The Arena already has a relationship with the Lakers franchise, having hosted four preseason Lakers games in the past three years.
“I have enjoyed a long-time relationship with Jerry and Jeanie Buss, Lon Rosen and Linda Rambis,” said Oak View Group Senior Partner Irving Azoff in a news release. “And I am beyond thrilled to have the Coachella Valley Lakers call OVG’s Acrisure Arena their home. Go Lakers.”
“Moving the Lakers G League team to the Coachella Valley is an incredible opportunity for the organization,” said Los Angeles Lakers President of Business Operations Lon Rosen. “The Lakers have had a strong presence in the region for decades, from the Showtime Lakers holding training camp in the 1980s to more recent preseason games. We are looking forward to extending that experience and becoming a staple for Coachella Valley sports and entertainment. Acrisure Arena is the perfect modern venue that provides an incredible fan-first experience, while ensuring players have the premium facilities and space they need on game day.”
Acrisure Arena will now be home to an AHL hockey team and an NBA G League team whose seasons run concurrently.
The G-League season runs from November through April and the most recent regular season was 50 games long. Last year’s season featured 24 home games.
A G-League team is made up of Lakers draft picks, two-way players and veteran players hoping for a call-up, very similar to what valley fans have come to know with the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds. The Lakers’ 2025-26 G League famously featured Bronny James, the son of LeBron James, when he wasn’t playing for the NBA club.
“Opportunities like this are simply not possible without the support and assistance of incredible partners,” said Acrisure Arena Senior Vice President John Page. “We would like to recognize the efforts put forth by Supervisor V. Manuel Perez and Visit Greater Palm Springs, who have worked in conjunction with Oak View Group, the Lakers organization and many others in order to welcome the G League to our town. We look forward to expanding upon our growing connection to the sports community with the addition of this storied franchise.”
There is already a website coachellavalleylakers.com where fans can put a season ticket deposit down. The team also has a Twitter/X handle @CValleyLakers.
Lakers history in the Coachella Valley
The Lakers have an extensive history in the Coachella Valley dating back to the Showtime Lakers days of the 1980s with the team would hold training camp at College of the Desert in Palm Desert. That teams won five championships in the 1980s and featured Hall of Fame players like Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar, coached by Hall of Famer Pat Riley.
While the Lakers eventually moved their training to Hawaii, the team still donated money to College of the Desert just to keep the connection between the team and the school solid. That paid off when the Lakers returned to COD for training camp in the late 1990s, another championship team that featured Shaquille O’Neal and rising star Kobe Bryant.
In recent years, since Acrisure Arena opened in 2022, the Lakers have played four preseason games at Acrisure Arena. Including in 2024 when LeBron James and his son Bronny James famously played together in the same pro game for the first time.
Why is it called the G League?
The G stands for Gatorade. It used to simply be called the NBA Developmental League, but Gatorade bought the naming rights to the league before the 2017-18 season.
This is a developing story.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Lakers move their NBA G League team to Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert
Reporting by Shad Powers and Larry Bohannan, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
