Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena | |
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Location | 3939 S. Figueroa Street Los Angeles, California 90037 |
Broke ground | April 7, 1958 |
Opened | July 4, 1959 |
Owner | State of California County of Los Angeles City of Los Angeles |
Operator | Los Angeles Coliseum Commission |
Construction cost | $8.5 million USD ($64 million in 2012 dollars[1]) |
Architect | Welton Becket |
Capacity | Basketball: 16,161 Ice hockey: 14,546 Boxing/Wrestling: 16,740 |
Tenants | |
Los Angeles Lakers (NBA) (1960–1967) Los Angeles Clippers (NBA) (1984–1999) Los Angeles Kings (NHL) (1967) Los Angeles Sharks (WHA) (1972-1974) UCLA Bruins basketball (NCAA) (1960–1965, 2011-2012) USC Trojans basketball (NCAA) (1959–2006) Los Angeles Stars (ABA) (1968–1970) Los Angeles Cobras (AFL) (1988) WrestleMania 2 (1986) WrestleMania VII (1991) Los Angeles Temptation (LFL) (2009–2011) |
The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena is a multi-purpose arena, in the University Park neighborhood, of Los Angeles, California, at Exposition Park. It is located next to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, just south of the campus of the University of Southern California.
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The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena was opened on July 4, 1959 by then U.S. Vice President Richard M. Nixon. Its first event followed four days later, a Bantamweight title fight between Jose Becerra and Alphonse Halimi on July 8, 1959. The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena became a companion facility to the adjacent Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and home court to the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA from October 1960 to December 1967, the Los Angeles Clippers also of the NBA from 1984–1999, the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL from October to December 1967 during their inaugural 1967-68 season, the USC Trojans basketball team of the NCAA from 1959–2006, the UCLA Bruins Basketball team of the NCAA from 1959-1964, the Los Angeles Blades of the Western Hockey League from 1961 to 1967, the Los Angeles Sharks of the WHA from 1972-1974, the Los Angeles Cobras of the AFL in 1988, and the original Los Angeles Stars of the ABA from 1968–1970. The arena played host to the top indoor track meet on the West Coast, the annual Los Angeles Invitational track meet (frequently called the ""Sunkist Invitational", with title sponsorship by Sunkist Growers, Incorporated), from 1960 until the event's demise in 2004. Since the Trojans left, the arena has taken on a lower profile. The arena still holds high school basketball championships, as well as concerts and conventions. The UCLA men's basketball team will play a majority of their home games at the Sports Arena during the 2011-12 season while Pauley Pavilion undergoes renovation.
Since its opening day, the arena has hosted the 1960 Democratic National Convention, the 1968 and 1972 NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four, the 1992 NCAA Women's Basketball Final Four, the 1963 NBA All-Star Game, and the boxing competitions during the 1984 Summer Olympics.[2] In addition to hosting the final portion of WrestleMania 2 in 1986, the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena has also hosted WrestleMania VII in 1991 as well as other WWE events. The arena also hosted When Worlds Collide, a 1994 joint card between the Mexican lucha libre promotion AAA and World Championship Wrestling that is credited with introducing the lucha style to English-speaking audiences in the U.S. NBC's renewed version of American Gladiators was filmed from the arena.
The arena has recently undergone a major renovation to bring it up to 21st century seismic standards and is well maintained. There are 4 fully equipped team rooms, 2 smaller rooms for officials, and 2 private dressing rooms for individual performers. There are two additional meeting rooms on site which can be used for administrative or hospitality functions.
Spectator amenities include a full-service main ticket office, a secondary box office and 2 portable booths, 6 permanent concession stands, and a first-aid station. A club and restaurant are located on the arena level of the facility. A number of operational improvements have also been made to enhance accessibility for the handicapped. These include the installation of 14 additional handicapped parking stalls, hand rails on both sides of the pedestrian ramp leading to the floor level seating, handicapped accessible drinking fountains, an Assistive Listening System to aid the hearing impaired, conversion of restroom facilities, dressing rooms and bathroom fixtures for the handicapped, and increased informational signage. Event presentation is augmented by a four-sided overhead scoreboard with several auxiliary boards.
The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena seats up to 16,740 for boxing/wrestling, 16,161 for basketball, and 14,546 for hockey. There are 12,389 fixed upper-level, theatre-type seats and arena-level seating which varies by sport.
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission embarked on a seismic retrofit, designed to bring the Sports Arena up to 21st century seismic standards. In order to reinforce the existing 316,700-square-foot (29,420 m2) structure, a series of steel braced frames were connected to the existing concrete structural system at both the arena and loge levels of the building. To provide a solid footing for these steel frames, portions of the arena floor had to be excavated, then reinforced to provide extra strength. Once the steel frames were fitted and incorporated into the existing structure between existing support columns, concrete was then re-poured into the area. The original crown of the arena, one of its most distinguishing characteristics, was the countless small ceramic tiles, each measuring no more than a square inch in width. A multitude of the crown's tiles were loosening and many others were discolored. In order to remedy this, a new crown was designed, this time using individual sections of EIFS (Exterior Insulation Finishing System), which offered the decided advantages of better durability, easier maintenance and improved thermal characteristics. A foundation surface was applied directly over the existing tiles, in order to seal the crown and give the new surface something to adhere to. Once the structural work was finished, the walls, ceilings, doors, floors and other areas involved in the modification had to be put back together. Throughout the entire project, the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena remained open for business. The resulting arena now features a brand-new crown around the exterior of the building, as well as a new terrazo floor on the concourse level.
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