Sports in Los Angeles

The Los Angeles area is home to some of the most prominent professional and collegiate sports teams in the country. USC Trojans Football, UCLA Bruins men's basketball, Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Galaxy, USC Trojans baseball, Cal State Fullerton Titans baseball, and USC Trojans Track & Field are all historically premiere organizations in their respective sport. Other major sports teams include the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, UCLA Bruins Football, Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks, Pepperdine Waves baseball, Los Angeles Clippers, and formerly the Los Angeles Rams, *Los Angeles Raiders, Los Angeles Aztecs. Between them, these Los Angeles area sports teams have won a combined 105 Championship Titles. Los Angeles area colleges have produced upwards of 200 National Championship Teams, primarily from USC Trojans and UCLA Bruins of the Pacific-12 Conference.

Dodger Stadium (in Chávez Ravine) is the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Staples Center in Los Angeles hosts the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Kings, and Los Angeles Sparks.

Major league professional teams

Los Angeles is home to major league sports teams for four of the five major leagues — LA has teams in MLB, NBA, MLS, and NHL, but currently has no NFL team. The following are the major professional teams in the Los Angeles area, ranked by average attendance.

Club League Venue Attendance Founded Established
in L.A.		 Titles
in L.A.
Los Angeles Dodgers MLB Baseball Dodger Stadium 46,216 1883 1958 5[a 1]
Los Angeles Angels MLB Baseball Angel Stadium 37,277 1961 1961 1
LA Galaxy MLS Soccer StubHub Center 23,136 1995 1995 5
Los Angeles Clippers NBA Basketball Staples Center 19,226 1970 1984 0
Los Angeles Lakers NBA Basketball Staples Center 18,997 1947 1960 11[a 2]
Los Angeles Kings NHL Hockey Staples Center 18,178 1967 1967 2
Anaheim Ducks NHL Hockey Honda Center 15,887 1993 1993 1
Los Angeles Sparks WNBA Basketball Staples Center 10,998 1997 1997 2
  1. ↑ Does not include one championship won in Brooklyn.
  2. ↑ Does not include five championships won in Minneapolis.

Baseball

Angel Stadium (in Anaheim, California) is the home of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
StubHub Center (in Carson, California) is the home of the Los Angeles Galaxy.
See also: Freeway Series

The Los Angeles area is one of four metropolitan areas to host two Major League Baseball teams -- the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the American League. The Dodgers are one of the most valuable franchises in MLB. The LA Dodgers were founded in Brooklyn, New York; they officially adopted the name Dodgers in 1932.

Basketball

Los Angeles boasts two NBA teams, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers. Both share the Staples Center. The Lakers are one of the most valuable franchises in the NBA and have gained a considerable fanbase over the years. They have the most titles of all Los Angeles franchises, having gained 11 titles in LA and 16 overall. Their title count is second only to the Boston Celtics, whom have 17 titles. The LA Lakers were originally founded as the Minneapolis Lakers. The LA Clippers were originally founded as the Buffalo Braves; in 1976, the team moved to San Diego and changed the nickname to Clippers.

When he died in 2013, Lakers owner Jerry Buss also owned the city's WNBA franchise, the Los Angeles Sparks; that team also plays at Staples Center. His family still owns the Lakers, but has since sold the Sparks to Guggenheim Partners, the current owners of the Dodgers.

Hockey

The region has two NHL teams—the Los Angeles Kings, which entered the league when it doubled in size in 1967, and the Anaheim Ducks, which joined in 1993 as the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

Soccer

The Los Angeles area hosts two top-level professional teams that compete in Major League Soccer, the Los Angeles Galaxy and expansion Los Angeles FC, beginning in 2017.

Minor league and semi-pro teams

Arena football

The AFL, revived in 2010, will return to the Los Angeles area in 2014 with a new team, the LA KISS. The team, owned by a group that includes Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, members of the rock band KISS, will play in Anaheim at the Honda Center.[1]

Basketball

The city is home to a team in the NBA D-League, the Los Angeles D-Fenders.

Gaelic football

The Irish amateur sport of Gaelic football has been played in Los Angeles since the early 20th century. Los Angeles were national champions in 1959.[2]

The Wild Geese Gaelic Football Club, Inc. founded in 1978 [3] currently administers Gaelic football activities in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. It also competes as one team in the Southern California championship and in the National Playoffs organized by the North American GAA. In 2015, another team the Culver City Cougars [4] was founded to compete in Southern California.

Rugby league

Los Angeles's rugby league team the Los Angeles Raiders RLFC are a developing team in the USA Rugby League, formed in 2011. They will aim to compete as a full team in 2012.[5]

Rugby union

Competing continuously for over 50 years, The Los Angeles Rugby Club is the second oldest club in the Southern California Rugby Football Union (SCRFU). The Club was founded in 1958 as the Universities Rugby Club. Founding members included Al Williams and Dick Hyland, members of the Gold Medal winning 1924 USA Olympic Rugby Team.

Other clubs include the LA Rebellion, San Fernando Valley Rugby Club, and Santa Monica Rugby Club.

Soccer

The Los Angeles area also has multiple clubs in the USL Premier Development League scattered throughout the region: Orange County Blues FC, Los Angeles Misioneros, Southern California Seahorses, Ventura County Fusion, Hollywood United Hitmen, Orange County Blue Star, and FC Santa Clarita.

In addition, the Legends, Santa Clarita Blue Heat, and Pali Blues play in the USL W-League.

Former professional teams

Club League Last Venue Years in L.A. Championships
Los Angeles Rams NFL Football Anaheim Stadium 1946–1994 1951 NFL Championship
Los Angeles Raiders NFL Football Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 1982–1994 1 (1983- Super Bowl XVIII)
Los Angeles Avengers AFL Arena Football Staples Center 2000–2009 0
Los Angeles Xtreme XFL Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 2001 1 (2001)
Anaheim Arsenal D-League Basketball Anaheim Convention Center 2006 0

Football

Los Angeles has not had an NFL team since the 1994 season; prior to that it had two teams simultaneously. Immediately after that season, the Los Angeles Rams moved from suburban Anaheim to St. Louis, Missouri, and the Los Angeles Raiders returned to Oakland, California. Since then, several attempts have been made to land the city an NFL team, but none have succeeded.

The Los Angeles Xtreme The team was a member of the XFL begun by Vince McMahon of World Wrestling Entertainment and by NBC, a major television network in the United States. The team played its home games in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in the spring of 2001. Winning the only championship in XFL history as the league folded after only one season.

Los Angeles had multiple teams in the Arena Football League and American Football League, prior to the NFL. The Los Angeles Wildcats, also called "Wilson Wildcats", were a traveling team for the first AFL in 1926. The Los Angeles Bulldogs were members of AFL II (1937) and a minor AFL (1939) before joining the Pacific Coast Professional Football League. The Los Angeles Chargers were a charter member of AFL IV, becoming the San Diego Chargers in 1961. The Los Angeles Mustangs were members of the short-lived American Football League in 1944. From 1983–1985 the Los Angeles Express was a team in the United States Football League.

Before the AFL collapsed after the 2008 season, the league included the Los Angeles Cobras and the Los Angeles Avengers. The Cobras played one season at the Los Angeles Sports Arena before folding, mostly due to lack of attendance. The Avengers played their home games at the Staples Center until they folded as well.

On August 9, 2011 the LA City Council approved plans to build Farmers Field, a new stadium in downtown Los Angeles. [6]

Soccer

The Los Angeles Wolves were a member of the United Soccer Association, starting its first season in 1967. The Los Angeles Toros of the National Professional Soccer League also started its first season in 1967. When both leagues merged to form the North American Soccer League, the Wolves remained in Los Angeles while the Toros relocated and became the San Diego Toros in 1968. When the first season ended, both teams folded. Later, the NASL returned a team in Los Angeles by establishing the Los Angeles Aztecs in 1974. The Aztecs folded in 1981.

Los Angeles Lazers was owned by Jerry Buss and played in the MISL from 1982–1988. Buss again owned the Los Angeles United in the CISL but after one season (1993) sold the team. The United relocated to Anaheim and became Anaheim Splash. The Los Angeles Sol played one season (2009) of Women's Professional Soccer before folding.

Lacrosse

Major League Lacrosse was represented with the Los Angeles Riptide from 2006 to 2008.

College

The metropolitan area boasts nine NCAA Division I athletic programs. The best-known are the two whose football teams compete in the top-level Football Bowl Subdivision, both of which are in the city of Los Angeles proper:

USC has 11 national championships in football and, together with Notre Dame, has more Heisman Trophy winners than any other school. In men's basketball, UCLA has won more titles than any other school.

The area's other Division I programs are:

National and International Sporting Events

Throughout the history of Los Angeles, several national and international sporting events have taken place in the city.

Super Bowls

The Los Angeles area has hosted the Super Bowl seven times. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum hosted Super Bowl I in 1967 and Super Bowl VII in 1973. The Rose Bowl hosted Super Bowl XI in 1977, Super Bowl XIV in 1980, Super Bowl XVII in 1983, Super Bowl XXI in 1987 and Super Bowl XXVII in 1993. The city ranks third on the list of having hosted the most number of Super Bowls, after Miami and New Orleans.

Olympic Games

The Opening Ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics

Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympic Games twice. They hosted the games for the first time in 1932. Los Angeles hosted the games once again in 1984. Los Angeles has made a total of nine Summer Olympic bids in its history, more than any other city. Los Angeles along with Athens, Paris and London are the four cities that have hosted the Summer Olympic Games twice.

The USOC decided it would bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics and looked for US cities to submit bids so that one could be sent to the IOC. Los Angeles submitted a bid to the USOC. The USOC ultimately selected Chicago's bid to send to the IOC. Chicago ultimately lost to Rio de Janeiro when the IOC voted to select the host city. In November 2011 a delegation from Los Angeles attended a seminar at the IOC headquarters for cities interested in bidding on a future Olympic Game. [7] In February 2012, Los Angeles hosted the 5th IOC World Conference on Women and Sport which was attended by IOC President Jacques Rogge as well as IOC members. [8] [9] At the conference Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and IOC Member Anita DeFrantz stated that that the city would be interested in hosting the Olympic Games a third time. [10] Upon the USOC reaching a new revenue sharing agreement with the IOC, Los Angeles has been mentioned as a possible bidding city for the 2024 Summer Olympics. [11] In March 2013, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sent a letter to the USOC confirming the city's interest in bidding for the 2024 Olympics. [12]

FIFA World Cups

The Rose Bowl hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup Final (c. 2008)

In 1994 the United States hosted the FIFA World Cup. The Rose Bowl in Pasadena was one of the venues used during the World Cup. The venue hosted eight of the games including the final where Brazil defeated Italy 3-2 on penalties.

The Rose Bowl was used again during the 1999 Women's World Cup. The venue hosted four matches including the final where the United States defeated China 5-4 on penalties. The United States hosted the Women's World Cup again in 2003. The Home Depot Center, now known as StubHub Center, in Carson was one of the venues that was used in the event. The venue hosted six games, including the final where Germany defeated Sweden 2-1 in sudden death.

Special Olympics

It was announced on September 15, 2011 that Los Angeles will host the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games.[13] The games will be held from July 24 to August 2, 2015. [14]

See also

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Rovell, Darren (August 15, 2013). "KISS brings football to Los Angeles". ESPN.com. Retrieved August 15, 2013.
  2. ↑ http://admin.sportsmanager.ie/cake/gaa2/nagaa/contentPage/30927/past_national_champions
  3. ↑ http://www.wildgeesegfc.org
  4. ↑ http://www.cougars.la/
  5. ↑ http://www.usarugbyleague.com/about/developing-regions/
  6. ↑ "L.A. NFL stadium agreement approved by City Council on 12-0 vote". Los Angeles Times. August 9, 2011.
  7. ↑ http://aroundtherings.com/articles/view.aspx?id=38351
  8. ↑ First Round of Speakers Announced for 2012 International Olympic World Conference
  9. ↑ 5th World Conference on Women and Sport
  10. ↑ Women and Sport Opens with Jeers for FIFA, Cheers for Trophy Winners
  11. ↑ IOC agrees revenue-sharing deal with USOC
  12. ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/07/olympics-2024-los-angeles_n_2831607.html LA letter to USOC
  13. ↑ http://www.gamesbids.com/eng/other_news/1216135892.html
  14. ↑ Events & Venues