Downtown Los Angeles has something the rest of the city does not: enough bars within walking distance of each other that you can leave one and be in another in four minutes. Add a major soccer stadium a short ride south, a second club's supporters spread through the neighbourhood, and a working population that finishes at six, and DTLA becomes the only genuinely walkable soccer-watching district in the county. The rooms divide up along club lines fairly clearly, and knowing which is which saves an awkward evening.
Match-day downtown is a different neighbourhood from ordinary downtown - rooms fill two hours early and some take names. Tell Karpo which club you follow and when the fixture is, and it will tell you where to be and how early.
The local clubs come first
Los Angeles has two MLS clubs and downtown is squarely one of their territories. The stadium in Exposition Park is a short ride south of the historic core and the surrounding bars fill from about two hours before a home kickoff, with organised supporter groups marching in from specific meeting points.
The other club plays out in Carson, well south of the city, and its downtown presence is smaller and more scattered - a handful of rooms rather than a district. The rivalry is genuine and the derby is the one fixture where you should establish which room you are walking into before you walk into it.
European football splits by nationality, not by club
This is the useful distinction downtown. Unlike Astoria or parts of London, the rooms here do not sort into Arsenal and Liverpool so much as into English-league rooms, Liga MX rooms and Spanish-league rooms, each with a broad following rather than a single allegiance.
The Liga MX rooms are the largest and loudest and the ones most people underrate. Club América, Chivas and Cruz Azul all have serious followings in this city, the derbies are enormous, and the fixtures land at civilised Pacific-time hours rather than at dawn.
The historic core versus the Arts District
The historic core around Broadway, Spring and Main is where the walkable cluster is - older rooms, more screens, lower prices, and close enough together that a two-bar evening is a four-minute walk rather than a drive. This is where to go if you have not decided in advance.
The Arts District east of Alameda has the newer bars and breweries and shows football, but the blocks are long and there is nothing at street level between them. It works if you have picked a place; it is a poor neighbourhood to wander in looking for a screen.
South Park, around the arena and the convention centre, is the third zone and is dominated by event traffic. On a night with something on at the arena it is packed and expensive; on any other night it is the quietest of the three.
How to read a room before committing
Scarves and pennants behind the bar tell you the affiliation immediately, and they are almost always up. A wall of screens all showing one match with the sound up is a supporters' room; six screens showing six matches with a scores ticker is a general sports bar and the better bet if you are neutral.
The other signal is the crowd's age and language. A Liga MX room on a Saturday afternoon and an English-league room at seven in the morning are different social events in every respect except that both involve football, and neither is trying to be the other.
Match-day logistics
On a home match day the rooms nearest the stadium fill from about two hours out and the streets around Exposition Park close progressively. If the plan is a drink before a game, be in the room by ninety minutes before kickoff or accept standing.
Metro is the answer downtown and it is one of the few places in Los Angeles where that is straightforwardly true. Several lines converge in the core and the stadium is directly served, which removes both the parking problem and the question of whether you are driving home.
The hours problem, again
Downtown empties out earlier than its size suggests. A lot of the historic core is built on office trade and starts winding down by ten on a weeknight, and the bars that stay open late are a separate and smaller set concentrated on a few blocks.
For a European fixture at an odd hour, this matters more than it does in Koreatown, which does not close. If the match is at seven in the morning or midnight, confirm the room is open for it specifically rather than assuming the neighbourhood will be awake.
One note on the derby
The Los Angeles derby is one of the better atmospheres in American sport and it is also the one fixture where walking into the wrong room in the wrong shirt is a genuinely poor idea. Both sets of supporters take it seriously and downtown is where they overlap most.
If you are new to it and want to watch without picking a side, the general multi-screen sports bars in the historic core are the right choice that day. Everyone there is watching it, nobody expects you to sing, and you will still get the atmosphere.
Tags: #DTLA #SoccerBars #LosAngeles #LAFC #LigaMX #WatchParty #DowntownLA #Football #LASports #LANights
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Ask Karpo first
Downtown is the one part of this city where the next bar is a four-minute walk. Ask Karpo which rooms are showing your club tonight and how early they fill on a match day.
