Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is a large outdoor sports stadium in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, at Exposition Park, that is home to the Pacific-12 Conference's University of Southern California Trojans football team. It is the largest football stadium in the Pac-12.

It is located next to the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena adjacent to the campus of the University of Southern California (USC). The stadium is jointly owned by the State of California, Los Angeles County, and the City of Los Angeles; it is currently managed by the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission, which has board members drawn from the three ownership interests.^[7]

The Coliseum is the only stadium to have hosted the Olympic Games twice, in 1932 and 1984. It is also the only Olympic stadium to have also hosted Super Bowls and World Series. It was declared a National Historic Landmark on July 27, 1984, the day before the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics.^[6]

Present use

The Coliseum is now primarily the home of the USC Trojan football team. During the recent stretch of its success in football, most of USC's regular home games, especially the alternating games with rivals UCLA and Notre Dame, attract a capacity 92,000 person crowd. The current official capacity of the Coliseum is 93,607.^[8][9] The Coliseum Commission also rents the Coliseum to various events, including international soccer games, musical concerts and other large outdoor events.

Celebrating their 50th anniversary in Los Angeles, the Dodgers and Boston Red Sox played an exhibition game at the Coliseum on March 29, 2008; a Los Angeles and MLB record for attendance was broken, where 115,300 people attended the game.

On June 17, 2009, the Coliseum played host to the 2009 NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers as the end point of the championship parade. Player and coach speeches were given at the Coliseum following a procession that began at the Staples Center.

The 2003 and 2010 editions of the X Games were partially held at the Coliseum.

Olympic Cauldron

The Olympic Cauldron (also known as the Olympic Torch) was built for the stadium's two Olympic games. It is still lit during the fourth quarter of USC football games, and other special occasions (e.g., when the Olympics are being held in another city).

It was lit for several days following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986. The torch was also lit for over a week following the September 11 attacks in 2001. In 2004, the cauldron was lit non-stop for seven days in tribute to President Ronald Reagan, who had died. It was lit again in April 2005 following the death of Pope John Paul II, who had celebrated Mass at the Coliseum during his visit to Los Angeles in 1987. At the Los Angeles Dodgers Fiftieth Anniversary Game on March 29, 2008, the torch was lit for the ThinkCure! charity ceremony, while Neil Diamond's "Heartlight" was played and the majority of the attendees turned on their complimentary souvenir keychain flashlights.

History

Structure

The Coliseum was commissioned in 1921 as a memorial to veterans of World War I (rededicated to veterans of all wars in 1968). The official ground breaking ceremony took place on December 21, 1921 with work being completed in just over 16 months, on May 1, 1923.^[10] Designed by John and Donald Parkinson, the original bowl's initial construction costs were $954,873. When the Coliseum opened in 1923, it was the largest stadium in Los Angeles with a capacity of 75,144. In 1930, however, with the Olympics due in two years, the stadium was extended upward to seventy-nine rows with two tiers of tunnels, expanding the seating to 101,574. The now-signature torch was added. For a time it was known as Olympic Stadium. The Olympic cauldron torch which burned through both Games remains above the peristyle at the east end of the stadium as a reminder of this, as do the Olympic rings symbols over one of the main entrances. The football field runs east to west (a relative rarity in American football stadiums) with the press box on the south side of the stadium. The scoreboard and video screen that tower over the peristyle date back to 1983; they replaced a smaller scoreboard above the center arch installed in 1972, which in turn supplanted the 1937 model, one of the first all-electric scoreboards in the nation. Over the years new light towers have been placed along the north and south rims. The large analog clock and thermometer over the office windows at either end of the peristyle were installed in 1955. In the mid-and late 1950s the press box was renovated and the "Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum" lettering and Olympic rings, lighted at night, were added to the eastern face of the peristyle tower. Between the double peristyle arches at the east end is the Coliseum's "Court of Honor"-- plaques recognizing many of the memorable events and participants in Coliseum history, including a full list of 1932 and 1984 Olympic gold medalists. (The complete roster of honorees can be seen below).

A pair of life-sized bronze nude statues of male and female athletes atop a 20,000 pound (9,000 kg) post-and-lintel frame formed the Olympic Gateway created by Robert Graham for the 1984 games. The statues, modeled on water polo player Terry Schroeder and long jumper from Guyana, Jennifer Innis, who participated in the games, were noted for their anatomical accuracy. A decorative facade bearing the Olympic rings was erected in front of the peristyle for the 1984 games, and the structure remained in place through that year's football season. The stadium rim and tunnels were repainted in alternating pastel colors that were part of architect Jon Jerde's graphic design for the games; these colors remained until 1987.

Renovations

For many years the Coliseum was capable of seating over 100,000 spectators. In 1964 the stadium underwent its first major renovation in over three decades. Most of the original pale green wood-and-metal bench seating was replaced by individual theater-type chairs of dark red, beige, and yellow; these seats remain in place today, though the yellow color was eliminated in the 1970s. The seating capacity was reduced to approximately 93,000. And from this point to the late 1970s it was common practice to shift the playing field to the closed end of the stadium and install end zone bleachers in front of the peristyle, limiting further the number of seats available for sale. For USC-UCLA and USC-University of Notre Dame games, which often attracted crowds upward of 90,000, the bleachers were moved eastward and the field was re-marked in its original position. When a larger east grandstand was installed in 1977-1978 at the behest of Rams owner Carroll Rosenbloom, the capacity was just 71,500. With the upcoming 1984 Summer Olympic Games, a new track was installed and the playing field permanently placed inside it. The Olympic-era seating capacity of approximately 91,500 made the venue problematic for the Raiders, as it meant that the vast majority of their home games could not be televised locally due to NFL "blackout" rules (league rules do not allow home games to be televised locally unless the game sells out at least 72 hours prior to its scheduled kickoff). Furthermore, the combination of the stadium's large, relatively shallow design, along with the presence of the track between the playing field and the stands, meant that some of the original end zone seats were essentially away from the field by the equivalent length of another football field. To address these and other problems, the Coliseum underwent a $15 million renovation before the 1993 football season which included the following^[3]:

• The field was lowered by 11 feet (3.4 m) and fourteen new rows of seats replaced the running track, bringing the first row of seats closer to the playing field (a maximum distance of 54 feet (16 m) at the eastern 30 yard-line).
• A portable seating section was built between the eastern endline and the peristyle bleachers (the stands are removed for concerts and similar events).
• A modernization of the locker rooms and public restrooms.
• The bleachers were replaced with individual seating.^[11]

Additionally, for Raiders home games, tarpaulins were placed over seldom-sold sections, reducing seating capacity to approximately 65,000. The changes were anticipated to be the first of a multi-stage renovation designed by HNTB that would have turned the Coliseum into a split-bowl stadium with two levels of mezzanine suites (the peristyle end would have been left as is). After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, however, $93 million was required from government agencies (including the Federal Emergency Management Agency) to repair earthquake damage, and the renovations demanded by the Raiders were put on hold indefinitely. The Raiders then redirected their efforts toward a proposed stadium at Hollywood Park in Inglewood before electing to move back to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum prior to the 1995 season. The last element of the Northridge earthquake repairs was the replacement of the condemned press box with a new press box in 1995.

In August 2011, construction began on the Coliseum's west end on a new 6,000 square-foot high-definition video scoreboard, accompanying the existing video scoreboard on the peristyle (east end) of the stadium^[12]. The video scoreboard officially went into operation on September 3, 2011, at USC football's home opener versus the University of Minnesota, with the game being televised on ABC.

Notable events

1920s

On October 6, 1923, Pomona College and USC played in the inaugural game at the Los Angeles Coliseum, with the Trojans prevailing 23–7. Situated just across the street from Exposition Park, USC agreed to play all its home games at the Coliseum, a circumstance that contributed to the decision to build the arena. From 1928 to 1981, the UCLA Bruins also played home games at the Coliseum. When USC and UCLA played each other, the "home" team (USC in odd-numbered years, UCLA in even), occupied the north sideline and bench, and its band and rooters sat on the north side of the stadium; the "visiting" team and its contigent took to the south (press box) side of the stadium. Excepting the mid-1950s and 1983–2007, the two teams have worn their home jerseys for the UCLA-USC rivalry football games; this tradition was renewed in 2008, even though the two schools play at different stadiums.

1930s–1940s

In 1932, the Coliseum hosted the 1932 Summer Olympic Games; the first of two Olympiads hosted at the stadium. The Coliseum served as the site of the field hockey, gymnastics, the show jumping part of the equestrian, and the track and field events along with the opening and closing ceremonies.^[13] The 1932 games marked the introduction of the Olympic Village as well as the victory podium.^[6]

The former Cleveland Rams of the National Football League relocated to the Coliseum in 1946, becoming the Los Angeles Rams; but the team later relocated again, first to Anaheim in 1980, then to St. Louis, Missouri in 1995. The Los Angeles Dons of the All-America Football Conference played in the Coliseum from 1946 to 1949, when the Dons franchise merged with its NFL cousins just before the two leagues merged.^[14] In 1960 the American Football League's Los Angeles Chargers played at the Coliseum before relocating to San Diego the next year.

1950s-1960s

Among other sporting events held at the Coliseum over the years was Major League Baseball, which was held at the Coliseum when the Los Angeles Dodgers of the National League relocated from Brooklyn, New York in 1958. The Dodgers played here until Dodger Stadium was completed in time for the 1962 season, despite the fact that the Coliseum's one-tier, oval bowl shape was extremely poorly suited to baseball. Foul territory was almost nonexistent down the first base line, but was very expansive down the third base line with a very large backstop for the catcher. Sight lines also left much to be desired; some seats were as far as 710 feet (220 m) from the plate.

The left field fence was only 251 feet (77 m) from the plate because the field was just barely large enough to fit a baseball diamond. Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick ordered the Dodgers to erect a screen in left field to prevent pop flies from becoming home runs. At its highest point at the foul pole, the fence was 42 feet (13 m) high. [1] The cables, towers, girders and wires were in play. Frick originally wanted the Dodgers to build a second screen in the stands, 333 feet (101 m) from the plate. A ball hit to left would have to clear both screens to be a home run; if it cleared the first screen, it would be a ground-rule double. However, the state's earthquake laws barred construction of a second screen.^[15] As it was, the "short porch" in left field looked attractive to batters, and perhaps no player took better advantage than Dodgers outfielder Wally Moon, whose adept loftings of fly balls over the fence were dubbed "Moon Shots."

Unable to compel the Dodgers to fix the situation, the major leagues passed a note to Rule 1.04 stating that any ball field constructed after June 1, 1958, must provide a minimum distance of 325 feet (99 m) down each foul line. Also, when the expansion Los Angeles Angels joined the American League for 1961, Frick rejected their original request to use the Coliseum.

In 1959, the screen figured in the National League pennant race. The Milwaukee Braves were playing the Dodgers in the Coliseum on September 15, 1959, and Joe Adcock hit a ball that cleared the screen but hit a steel girder behind it and got stuck in the mesh. According to the ground rules, this should have been a home run. However, the umpires ruled it a ground-rule double. Then the fans shook the screen, causing the ball to fall into the seats. The umpires changed the call to a homer, only to change their minds again and rule it a ground-rule double.^[15] Adcock was left stranded on second. The game was tied at the end of nine innings and the Dodgers won it in the tenth inning. [2] At the end of the regular season, the Dodgers and Braves finished in a tie. The Dodgers won the ensuing playoff and went on to win the World Series. If Adcock's hit had been ruled a home run, the Braves may have won the game and could have gone on to win the pennant by one game.

Although ill-suited as a Major League Baseball field, with its left field line at 251 feet (mentioned above) and power alley at 320 feet (98 m), it was ideally suited for large paying crowds despite the poor sight lines. Each of the three games of the 1959 World Series played there drew over 92,706 fans, a record unlikely to be seriously threatened anytime soon, given the smaller seating capacities of today's baseball parks. A May 1959 exhibition game between the Dodgers and the New York Yankees in honor of legendary catcher Roy Campanella drew 93,103, the largest crowd ever to see a baseball game in the Western Hemisphere until an exhibition game in 2008 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox to mark the 50th anniversary of Major League Baseball in Los Angeles. The Coliseum also hosted the second 1959 MLB All-Star Game. Also, from baseball's point of view, the locker rooms were huge, because they were designed for football (not baseball) teams.

The Coliseum was also the site of John F. Kennedy's memorable acceptance speech at the 1960 Democratic National Convention. It was during that speech that Kennedy first used the term "the New Frontier."

The Rams hosted the 1949, 1951 and the 1955 NFL championship games at the Coliseum. The Coliseum was the site of the very first NFL-AFL Championship Game in January 1967, an event since renamed the Super Bowl. It also hosted the Super Bowl in 1973. The venue was also the site of the NFL Pro Bowl from 1951-1972 and again in 1979.

1970s-1980s

In July 1972, the Coliseum hosted the Super Bowl of Motocross. The event was the first motocross race held inside a stadium.^[16] It has evolved into the AMA Supercross championship held in stadiums across the United States and Canada.

In 1973, Evel Knievel used the entire distance of the stadium to jump 50 stacked cars at the stadium. Knievel launched his motorcycle from atop one end of the Coliseum, jumping the cars in the center of the field, and stopping high atop the other end. The jump was filmed by ABC Wide World of Sports.^[17] Also in 1973, the Coliseum was host to Super Bowl VII which saw the (AFC) champion Miami Dolphins (17–0) defeat the (NFC) champion Washington Redskins (13-4), 14–7, and become the first, and presently the only team in the NFL to complete a perfect, undefeated season.

The Los Angeles Rams played their home games in the L.A. Coliseum until 1979, when they moved to Orange County prior to the 1980 NFL Season. They hosted the NFC Championship Game in 1975 & 1978 in which they lost both times to the Dallas Cowboys by lopsided margins.

The Coliseum was also home to the USFL's Los Angeles Express between 1983 and 1985. In this capacity, the stadium also is the site of the longest professional American football game in history; a triple-overtime game on June 30, 1984 (a few weeks before the start of the 1984 Summer Olympics) between the Express and the Michigan Panthers, which was decided on a 24-yard game winning touchdown by Mel Gray of the Express, 3:33 into the third overtime to give Los Angeles a 27–21 win. [3]

In 1982 the former Oakland Raiders moved in. The same year, UCLA decided to move out, relocating its home games to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

The Coliseum was also the site of the 1982 Speedway World Final, held for the first and, to this day, only time in the USA. The event saw Anaheim native Bruce Penhall retain the title he had won in 1981 at London's famous Wembley Stadium in a meeting that involved one of the most controversial incidents in the World Final history when Penhall and Englands Kenny Carter collided in Heat 14 while battling for 2nd place behind former Champion Peter Collins of England. Carter, who had been unbeaten in his previous three rides, fell and slid through the fence causing the race to be stopped. The referee of the meeting, Torrie Kittlesen of Norway excluded Carter for causing the race stoppage. Penhall, who had been beaten in his first ride by Collins' younger brother Les Collins to go along with two wins, went on to win the re-run from Collins and Australian Phil Crump. Before the heat could be re-run officials had to remove Carter from the track as he was protesting his exclusion claiming Penhall had clipped his front wheel causing him to crash. After winning the re-run heat, Penhall went on to win his last race and became a double World Champion. Bruce Penhall also chose this night to retire from International Motorcycle speedway, deciding what better way to go out than as World Champion in front of about 35,000 fans in his home town.

Los Angeles hosted the 1984 Summer Olympics, and the Coliseum became the first stadium to host the Olympics twice; again serving as the primary track and field venue and site of the opening and closing ceremonies.^[18]

The L.A. Coliseum was the site of a 2 day concert event on April 07 & 08, 1979. The Califfornia World Music Festival day 1 schedule included Ted Nugent, Cheap Trick, Fabulous Poodles, Head East, Mahogany Rush, The Outlaws, and REO Speedwagon. The day 2 schedule included Aerosmith, Van Halen ft David Lee Roth, April Wine, Boomtown Rats ft Sir Bob Geldof, Brownsville, Eddie Money, Mother's Finest, and UFO. Toto as well as Cheech and Chong performed on both days. Califfornia World Music Festival Poster.

The stadium played host to The Monsters of Rock Festival Tour, featuring Van Halen, Scorpions, Dokken, Metallica and Kingdom Come, on July 24, 1988. A show on the 23rd was cancelled.

The Who played the stadium twice in the 1980s in 1982 and 1989. [4]

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band finished their Born In The USA tour at the Coliseum with four concerts on September 27, 29-30 and October 2, 1985. These shows were recorded and eight songs appear on the five LP box set Live/1975–85.

The stadium also played host to Amnesty International's Human Rights Now! Benefit Concert on September 21, 1988. The show was headlined by Sting and Peter Gabriel and also featured Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Tracy Chapman, Youssou N'Dour and Joan Baez.

1990s-2000s

On December 27, 1991 Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam performed a sold-out concert at the Coliseum.

Metallica and Guns N' Roses brought the Guns N' Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour to the coliseum on September 27, 1992, with Motörhead as their opening act.

In 1995, the Raiders left Los Angeles and returned to Oakland, leaving the Coliseum without a professional football tenant for the first time since the close of World War II.

The most recent pro football tenant has been the short-lived Los Angeles Xtreme, the first and only champion of the XFL. It won the championship game at the Coliseum over San Francisco.

The stadium hosted several matches, including the semi-finals and final, of the 1991 CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer tournament. The United States national team beat Honduras in the final. The Coliseum also staged the final match of the Gold Cup in the 1996, 1998, and 2000 tournaments.

The stadium hosted the K-1 Dynamite!! USA mixed martial arts event. The promoters claimed that 54,000 people attended the event, which would have set a new attendance record for a mixed martial arts event in the United States, however other officials estimated the crowd between 20,000 and 30,000.^[19]

In May 1959, the Dodgers had hosted an exhibition game against the reigning World Series champion New York Yankees at the Coliseum, a game which drew over 93,000 people. The Yankees won that game 6-2. As part of their west coast 50th anniversary celebration in 2008, the Dodgers again hosted an exhibition game against the reigning World Series Champions, the Boston Red Sox.^[20] The middle game of a three-game set in Los Angeles, held on March 29, 2008, was also won by the visitors, by the relatively low score of 7-4, given the layout of the field - Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek had joked that he expected scores in the 80s.

As previously mentioned in the 1950s-1960s section, during 1958-1961, the distance from home plate to the left field foul pole was 251 feet (77 m) with a 42-foot (13 m) screen running across the close part of left field. Due to the intervening addition of another section of seating rimming the field, the 2008 grounds crew had much less space to work with, and the result was a left field foul line only 201 feet (61 m) long, with a 60-foot (18 m) screen which one Boston writer dubbed the "Screen Monster".[5] Even at that distance, 201 feet is also 49 feet (15 m) short of the minimum legal home run distance. This being an exhibition game, balls hit over the 60 feet (18 m) temporary screen were still counted as home runs. There were only a couple of homers over the screen, as pitchers adjusted (and Manny Ramirez did not play, although he ironically enough, would later be traded to the Dodgers that season).[6] Net proceeds from the game, estimated to be at $1 million (US) were to go to the ThinkCure charity. [7]

This diagram ([8]) illustrates the differences in the dimensions between 1959 and 2008:

2008 - LF 201 feet (61 m) - LCF 280 feet (85 m) - CF 380 feet (120 m) - RCF 352 feet (107 m) - RF 300 feet (91 m)

1959 - LF 251 feet (77 m) - LCF 320 feet (98 m) - CF 417 feet (127 m) - RCF 375 feet (114 m) - RF 300 feet (91 m)

A sellout crowd of 115,300 was announced, [9] which set a Guiness World Record for attendance at a baseball game, breaking the record set at a 1956 Summer Olympics baseball demonstration game between teams from the USA and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Beginning in June 2007, Insomniac Events has begun hosting their annual Electronic Dance Music Festival known as Electric Daisy Carnival on the Coliseum grounds, also using nearby Exposition Park. 2007's show brought in over 30,000 attendees and 2008's event brought in nearly 75,000 attendees.^[21][22] In 2009 it was expanded to a two day event, the first day brought in 45,000 attendees, and the second night featured 95,000, with some estimating that the attendance was actually above 100,000. It is currently the biggest electronic dance music festival outside Europe.

In 2006 the Coliseum Commission focused on signing a long-term lease with USC; the school offered to purchase the facility from the state but was turned down. After some at-time contentious negotiations, with the university threatening in late 2007 to move its home stadium to the Rose Bowl, the two sides signed a 25-year lease in May 2008 giving the Coliseum Commission 8% of USC's ticket sales, approximately $1.5 million a year, but commits the agency to a list of renovations.^[23]

On June 23, 2008, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission announced they are putting the naming rights of the Coliseum on the market, predicting a deal valued at $6 million to $8 million a year. The funds would go towards financing more than $100 million in renovations over the next decade, including a new video board, bathrooms, concession areas and locker rooms.^[23] Additional seating was included in the renovation plans which increased the Coliseum's seating capacity to 93,607 in September 2008.^[8][9]

On June 17, 2009, the Coliseum was the terminus for the Los Angeles Lakers 2009 NBA Championship victory parade. A crowd of over 90,000 attended the festivities, in addition to the throngs of supporters who lined the 2-mile parade route. The Coliseum peristyle was redesigned in purple and gold regalia to commemorate the team and the Lakers' court was transported from Staples Center to the Coliseum field to act as the stage. Past parades had ended at Staples Center, but due to the newly-constructed L.A. Live complex, space was limited around the arena. [10]

On July 30, 2011, the LA Rising festival with Rage Against The Machine, Muse, Rise Against, Lauryn Hill, Immortal Technique, and El Gran Silencio was hosted at the Coliseum.

The Coliseum and the NFL today

There is much debate about the Coliseum's potential to be a modern NFL venue. Although the Coliseum has significant historical value, it is regarded by many as inadequate to be the home of a major professional sports team. Since it was designed and built long before the age of club seats, luxury boxes, and the other revenue-generating amenities that modern football stadiums possess, any professional team moving to the Coliseum will likely have to perform extensive renovations. Also, its status as a National Historic Landmark means any renovations would have to be complementary to the most identifiable parts of the building, a guideline that was not followed during Soldier Field's renovations in 2002. Soldier Field was stripped of its landmark status as a result of its renovation. Los Angeles County voters have been generally uninterested in appropriating tax revenue toward building a new stadium. Without public funds, the costs of renovation would have to be borne by any future tenant of the Coliseum. Because of the difficulties that the NFL has had with trying to finance a renovated Coliseum, Rose Bowl or brand new stadium, pro football has been absent from the second-largest media market in the United States for over a decade. (The NFL was to award a franchise to Los Angeles in 2002, but debate over a stadium, coupled with Houston's aggressiveness, led the NFL to award the franchise to Houston instead.)

On November 10, 2005 then-NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced that the NFL and city officials had reached a preliminary agreement on bringing an NFL team back to the Coliseum. However, as of 2011 no expansion team has been granted to L.A., nor is any relocation of a current NFL team to the city imminent.

An article in the Wednesday, May 24, 2006 issue of the Los Angeles Times made light of a proposition to spend tens of millions of dollars of city funds to heavily renovate the stadium, and indicated that the city may make more than $100 million dollars in added funds available in the future toward further renovation. City leaders who support the spending despite significant disapproval from the local population cite that the renovations are necessary to help attract a new NFL team to the city, and that the tax revenue generated by the presence of a new franchise team would eventually pay back the investment many times over. Supporters further claim that the addition of a new NFL team will increase employment in the area adjacent to the stadium, a major concern because the area's population is largely of low and middle income, that these people will themselves help repay the expenditure by paying income taxes, that the presence of a new team will stimulate the local economy by making the area more attractive to new businesses (which themselves could theoretically employ hundreds of tax payers) and that the overall impact on the area will help to raise the area's real estate values.

While a proposal to bring pro football back to the Los Angeles area is still in the works, there has been little action taken in recent times of bringing an NFL team to the Coliseum. The Los Angeles Coliseum Commission is currently in talks with USC to see if a long-term master lease can be arranged with the university managing the facility; however the university has stated it does not want an opening for the NFL to come in later in such an agreement.^[7] In recent years, USC has had a series of mostly one- and two-year leases with the commission.^[7] In November 2007, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa declared that the policy of requiring the NFL to relocate to the Coliseum will change and other options will be explored.^[24]

The Coliseum Commission's June 23, 2008 decision to sell naming rights to the stadium further signals a likely end to the prospects of the NFL's returning to the Coliseum as the prospect of a naming-rights deal could have helped lure a new pro team.^[23] In even more recent developments, a new privately financed football stadium has been cleared to be built in the Los Angeles suburban City of Industry. The project is led by Coliseum Commission member, Chairman and CEO of Majestic Realty, Edward P. Roski, who had also previously spearheaded past proposals to renovate the Coliseum. The stadium, which now only depends on commitment to relocate from an existing NFL franchise, is known as the Los Angeles Football Stadium.

Seating and attendance

Seating capacity

Source:Ballparks.com^[25]

Attendance records

College football

Records differ between the 2006 USC football media guide and 2006 UCLA football media guide. (This may be due to only keeping records for "home" games until the 1950s.) The USC Media guide lists the top five record crowds as:

• 1. 104,953 — 1947 vs. Notre Dame (Highest attendance for a football game in the Coliseum)
• 2. 103,303 — 1939 vs. UCLA (USC home game)
• 3. 103,000 — 1945 vs. UCLA (UCLA home game)
• 4. 102,548 — 1954 vs. UCLA (UCLA home game)
• 5. 102,050 — 1947 vs. UCLA (USC home game)

The UCLA Media guide does not list the 1939 game against USC, and only lists attendance for the second game in 1945 for Coliseum attendance records. These are the top three listed UCLA record Coliseum crowds:

• 1. 102,548 — vs. USC 1954
• 2. 102,050 — vs. USC 1947
• 3. 100,333 — vs. USC (second of two meetings, 1945; USC home game)

The largest crowd to attend a USC football game against an opponent other than UCLA or Notre Dame was 96.130 for a November 10, 1951 contest with Stanford University. The largest attendance for a UCLA contest against a school other than USC was 92,962 for the November 1, 1946 game with St. Mary's College of California.

National Football League

The Los Angeles Rams played the San Francisco 49ers before an NFL record attendance of 102,368 on November 10, 1957. This was a record paid attendance that stood until September 2009 at Cowboys Stadium, though the overall NFL regular season record was broken in a 2005 regular season game between the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.^[26][27] Both records were broken on September 20, 2009 at the first regular season game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants.

In 1958 the Rams averaged 83,680 for their six home games, including 100,470 for the Chicago Bears and 100,202 for the Baltimore Colts.

In their thirteen seasons in Los Angeles the Raiders on several occasions drew near-capacity crowds to the Coliseum. The largest were 91,505 for an October 25, 1992 game with the Dallas Cowboys, 91,494 for a September 29, 1991 contest with the San Francisco 49ers, and 90,380 on January 1, 1984 for a playoff game with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Coliseum hosted the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game, later called the Super Bowl. The January 15, 1967 game, pitting the Green Bay Packers against the Kansas City Chiefs, attracted 61,946 fans—a lower-than anticipated crowd (by comparison, a regular-season game between the Packers and Rams a month earlier drew 72,418). For Super Bowl VII in 1973, which matched the Miami Dolphins against the Washington Redskins, the attendance was a near-capacity 90,182, a record that would stand until Super Bowl XI at the Rose Bowl Stadium. The 1975 NFC Championship Game between the Los Angeles Rams and Dallas Cowboys had an attendance of 88,919, still the largest crowd for a conference championship game since the conference-title format began with the 1970 season. The 1983 AFC Championship Game between the Raiders and Seattle Seahawks attracted 88,734.

Major League Baseball

Contemporary baseball guides listed the theoretical baseball seating capacity as 92,500. Thousands of east-end seats were very far from home plate, and were not sold unless needed. The largest regular season attendance was 78,672, the Dodgers' home debut in the Coliseum, against the San Francisco Giants on April 18, 1958.

The May 7, 1959, exhibition game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the 1958 World Series Champion New York Yankees, in honor of crippled former Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella, drew 93,103, which was a Major League Baseball record prior to 2008.

All three Dodgers home games in the 1959 World Series with the Chicago White Sox exceeded 90,000 attendance. Game 5 drew 92,706 fans, a major league record for a non-exhibition game.

The attendance for the exhibition game on March 29, 2008, between the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers, was 115,300,^[28] setting a new Guiness World Record for attendance at a baseball game. The previous record of an estimated 114,000 was in the 1956 Summer Olympics at Melbourne Cricket Ground for an exhibition game between teams from the USA Military and Australia.

"Court of Honor" plaques

"Commemorating outstanding persons or events, athletic or otherwise, that have had a definite impact upon the history, glory, and growth of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum" (also the nearby Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena):^[29]

In popular culture

Due to its location near Hollywood, the Coliseum has been used in hundreds of commercials, TV program and films over the years. Some examples:

Films

• 1976: The film Two-Minute Warning was set at the Coliseum.
• 1978: In the film Heaven Can Wait, the Los Angeles Rams use the Coliseum as their home ground; it is also used to play the Super Bowl
• 1991: The finale of the action film The Last Boy Scout was set in the Coliseum.
• 1996: The basketball scene in the film Escape from L.A. was set in the Coliseum.
• 1996:A scene in Jerry Maguire taking place after a football game is shot in the outdoor concourse of the stadium
• 1997: The final scene of the film Money Talks was shot in the Coliseum
• 2002: In the film S1m0ne virtual actress and singer Simone performs a concert and passes it around the world.
• 2006: A computer-generated version of the stadium is used in the Pixar movie Cars as the setting for the final "Piston Cup" race

Television

• 1972: The Coliseum was used in the Columbo episode "The Most Crucial Game"
• 1972: The Coliseum was used in the Banacek episode "Let's Hear It for a Living Legend"
• late 1970s: The original Charlie's Angels TV series shot three episodes at the Coliseum.
• 1976: The Coliseum was seen in the first episode of the sixth season of Emergency!
• 1978: Hosting the fictional football team, the Los Angeles Cougars, the Coliseum was the setting for the episode "Killer Instinct" of the second season of The Incredible Hulk
• 1980: An episode of Quincy, M.E. from March used the stadium as the centre of a botulism plot. It was purported to be hosting the 1980 "World cup soccer championships"
• 2001: The third episode of Alias used the Coliseum as a Berlin location
• 2003: The Coliseum was used in the filming of the last episode of the second season of the television show 24.^[30]
• 2005: In the fourth season of America's Next Top Model, the season's remaining contestants where to taught the runway walk
• 2006: The opening credits for BET's television series The Game was filmed in the Coliseum
• 2008: The Coliseum served as the starting line for the 13th installment of CBS's The Amazing Race

Animated

• 1986: Anime Film Captain Tsubasa: Sekai Daikessen! Jr. World Cup! Japan's team play the World Cup Soccer in the United States faces the hosts and South America combined Europeans defeated by a landslide
• 2005: In The Simpsons in the episode 343 of season 16, Homer looks at the halftime show of Super Bowl, the first Super Bowl is one person playing a Bombardon

Commercials

• 2006: A computer-generated version of the Coliseum was used for Budweiser beer TV commercials during the 2006 FIFA World Cup and then the 2006 NFL playoffs, the only change being that football players were on the field in the NFL playoffs version, whereas soccer players were on the field in the World Cup version. The stadium was shown filled to capacity, with each spectator participating in a classic card stunt. The imagery turned out to be a gigantic beer bottle on one sideline, pouring into a gigantic beer mug on the other sideline, whose contents were then shown being drained by an invisible consumer.

Video games

• 2011: In the video game Duke Nukem Forever, it is the first level where the player must battle a Cycloid Emperor

See also

• Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena
• Los Angeles 2016 Olympic bid
• History of the National Football League in Los Angeles
• Rose Bowl (stadium)

People

• A.J. Barnes, active in fight against giving USC preferential rights in the Coliseum, 1932
• Lloyd G. Davies, Los Angeles City Council member, 1943–51, urged that the city take over full management of the Coliseum
• Harold A. Henry, Los Angeles City Council president and later a member of the Coliseum Commission
• Rosalind Wiener Wyman, first representative of the Los Angeles City Council on the Coliseum Commission, 1958
• Ransom M. Callicott, Los Angeles City Council, commission member, 1962

References

Notes

External links

• LAColiseumLive.com - official site
• Los Angeles Sports Council
• USC Trojans.com - L.A. Memorial Coliseum
• Aerial photo - includes USC campus from USGS via Microsoft Research Maps