Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
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| Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">The Grand Old Lady</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">Image:LA Coliseum gate.jpg | |
|---|---|
| Location | 3911 South Figueroa Street Los Angeles, California 90037 |
| Opened | May 1, 1923 |
| Owner | Los Angeles Coliseum Commission (City of Los Angeles) <tr><td>Operator</td><td>Los Angeles Coliseum Commission</td></tr><tr><td>Surface</td><td>Grass</td></tr><tr><td>Construction cost</td><td>$955,000 USD</td></tr><tr><td>Architect</td><td>John Parkinson |
| Tenants | |
| USC Trojans (NCAA) (1923-present) UCLA Bruins (NCAA) (1923-1981) Summer Olympics (1932, 1984) Los Angeles Rams (NFL) (1946-1979) Los Angeles Dons (AAFC) (1946-1949) Los Angeles Dodgers (MLB) (1958-1961) Los Angeles Chargers (AFL) (1960) Los Angeles Raiders (NFL) (1982-1994) Los Angeles Express (USFL) (1983-1985) Los Angeles Xtreme (XFL) (2001) | |
| Seats | |
| 76,000 (1923) 101,574 (1932) 92,500 (1995-present) | |
- For other uses, see Memorial Coliseum (disambiguation).
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is a large outdoor sports stadium in Downtown Los Angeles, California at Exposition Park that has hosted two Olympics and is home to the University of Southern California Trojans football team. 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 owned by the City of Los Angeles and managed by the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission.
Contents |
[edit] Present Use
The Coliseum is now primarily the home of the USC Trojan football team. 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 92,516. The Coliseum Commission also rents the Coliseum to various events, including international soccer games, musical concerts and other large outdoor events.
[edit] 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 (i.e., when the Olympics are being held in another city). In 2004, the cauldron was lit non-stop for seven days in tribute to Ronald Reagan, who had died; and was lit again in April 2005 following the death of Pope John Paul II, who had held mass at the Coliseum during his visit to Los Angeles in 1987. The torch was also lit for over a week following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
[edit] History
[edit] Events
The two most notable events to take place at the Coliseum were the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympic Games, where the stadium served as the primary track and field venue and site of the opening and closing ceremonies.
In addition, many events have been held at the Coliseum over the years; below are some of the more notable. For nearly 60 years, it served as the home football stadium for both the USC Trojans (the main campus being across the street) and the UCLA Bruins. In the fall of 1982, with the Oakland Raiders scheduled to move in, UCLA decided to move out, relocating its home games to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. USC's agreement to play all its home games at the Coliseum was a contributing factor to its original construction.
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 1979, 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 conference merged with the NFL and the Dons franchise was folded. In 1960 the American Football League's Los Angeles Chargers played at the Coliseum before relocating to San Diego the next year.
Among other sporting events held at the Coliseum over the years was Major League Baseball, which was held at the Coliseum when the former Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League relocated to Los Angeles 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. Although ill-suited as a Major League Baseball field, with its left field line at 251 feet (77 m) and power alley at 320 feet (98 m), it was ideally suited for large paying crowds. Each of the three games of the 1959 World Series played there drew over 92,706 fans, a record unlikely to be challenged 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. The Coliseum also hosted the second 1959 MLB All-Star Game.
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 Coliseum was the site of the very first NFL-AFL Championship Game in January 1967, an event since given the modest name of 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.
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.
In 1982 the former Oakland Raiders moved in, however this team subsequently returned to Oakland in 1995, 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.
[edit] Structure
The official ground breaking ceremony took place on December 21, 1921 with work being completed less than two years later, on May 1, 1923[1]. When the Coliseum opened in 1923, it was already the largest stadium in Los Angeles with a capacity of 76,000. However, with the arrival of the Olympics only 10 years later, the stadium was expanded to 101,574 and 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 one end of the stadium as a reminder of this, as do the Olympic rings symbols over one of the main entrances.
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 sprinter Jackie Joyner-Kersee who participated in the games, were noted for their anatomical accuracy.
For many years the Coliseum was capable of seating over 100,000 spectators, and the capacity for the 1984 Olympics configuration was approximately 90,500. Subsequently, many seats — and the running track — were removed to appease Raiders owner Al Davis, partially in order to make the venue more easily sold out so that his team's game could appear live on L.A. television, which is forbidden by NFL rules unless a game is already sold out at least 72 hours prior to its scheduled kickoff. Some of the removed seats, which were primarily in the end zone, were replaced with new bleachers far closer to the end lines of the playing field. (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 former end zone seats were essentially away from the field by the equivalent in length to another football field.)
However, after the Raiders departed, and with the need for repairs after the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, some of the changes demanded by Davis were reversed, and the current configuration is somewhat similar to that used for the 1984 Olympics.
[edit] The Coliseum and the NFL today
There is great debate about the Coliseum's potential as a modern NFL stadium. Although the Coliseum is an important historical sports venue, it is regarded by some as no longer adequate to be the home of a major professional sports organization. Since it was designed and built long before the age of club seats, luxury boxes, and many of the other money-generating amenities that modern football stadiums possess, any professional team moving to the Coliseum will likely have to do extensive renovations. Los Angeles County voters are generally uninterested in appropriating tax revenues toward a new stadium, which would put the costs of renovation on any future tenant. Another factor is its location at the edge of South Los Angeles, which is perceived by many potential fans as a somewhat unsafe part of the city, although the area is considerably safer today than it was when the stadium housed two NFL teams. Because of the difficulties that the NFL has had with trying to finance a renovated Coliseum, Rose Bowl or brand new stadium, it has been absent from the second-largest media market in the United States, remarkably, 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 NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced that the NFL and city officials have reached a preliminary agreement on bringing an NFL team back to the Coliseum. However, no details have been decided.
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.
If Los Angeles wins its USOC and IOC competions, the renovated Coliseum would be home to the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
| Preceded by: Ebbets Field 1913–1957 | Home of the Los Angeles Dodgers 1958–1961 | Succeeded by: Dodger Stadium 1962–present |
| Preceded by: Cleveland Municipal Stadium 1944–1945 | Home of the Los Angeles Rams 1946–1979 | Succeeded by: Anaheim Stadium 1980–1994 |
| Preceded by: Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum 1966–1981 | Home of the Los Angeles Raiders 1982–1994 | Succeeded by: Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum 1995–present |
| Preceded by: first stadium | Home of the Los Angeles Chargers 1960 | Succeeded by: Balboa Stadium 1961–1966 |
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
- Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth
| Summer Olympic stadia |
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| Athens, 1896 • Paris, 1900 • St Louis, 1904 • London, 1908 • Stockholm, 1912 • Berlin, 1916 • Antwerp, 1920 • Paris, 1924 • Amsterdam, 1928 • Los Angeles, 1932 • Berlin, 1936 • Helsinki, 1940 • London, 1944 • London, 1948 • Helsinki, 1952 • Melbourne, 1956 • Rome, 1960 • Tokyo, 1964 • Mexico City, 1968 • Munich, 1972 • Montreal, 1976 • Moscow, 1980 • Los Angeles, 1984 • Seoul, 1988 • Barcelona, 1992 • Atlanta, 1996 • Sydney, 2000 • Athens, 2004 • Beijing, 2008 • London, 2012 |
| Football Stadiums of the Pacific Ten Conference |
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| Arizona Stadium (Arizona) • Autzen Stadium (Oregon) • Husky Stadium (Washington) • Martin Stadium (Washington State) • Memorial Coliseum (Southern California) • Memorial Stadium (California) • Reser Stadium (Oregon State) • Rose Bowl (UCLA) • Stanford Stadium (Stanford) • Sun Devil Stadium (Arizona State) |
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Categories: Pacific Ten Conference | American Football League venues | College football venues | Defunct Major League Baseball venues | Defunct National Football League venues | Landmarks in Los Angeles | MLB All-Star Game venues | National Historic Landmarks of the United States | Olympic stadiums | Previous NCAA bowl game venues | Registered Historic Places in California | Sports in Los Angeles | Sports venues in Greater Los Angeles | Sports venues in California | Super Bowl venues | Track and field venues in the United States | University of Southern California | USC Trojans football | Venues of the 1984 Summer Olympics
