The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (also known as the Los Angeles Coliseum or L.A. Coliseum) is a multi-purpose stadium in the Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. The Coliseum was commissioned in 1921 and completed in 1923 as a memorial to Los Angeles veterans of World War I. The stadium currently serves as the home of the University of Southern California Trojans football team, and is located directly adjacent to the school's main University Park campus. For most of its history the Coliseum was among the largest stadiums in the United States, seating over 100,000 for several decades.
The Coliseum was the home of the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL) from 1946 to 1979 and again from 2016 to 2019. It was the site of the first AFL–NFL World Championship Game (later called Super Bowl I) and Super Bowl VII. The stadium has also been the temporary home of the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1958 to 1961, and was the host venue for games three, four, and five of the 1959 World Series. Additionally, it has served as a home field for a number of other teams, including the 1960 inaugural season for the Los Angeles Chargers, the Los Angeles Raiders of the NFL from 1982 to 1994, and UCLA Bruins football.
The Coliseum is jointly owned by the State of California's Sixth District Agricultural Association, Los Angeles County, and the City of Los Angeles. It is managed and operated by the University of Southern California (USC).
The Coliseum was designated a National Historic Landmark on July 27, 1984, a day before the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics. It will become the first stadium to have hosted the Summer Olympics three times when it hosts the 2028 Summer Olympics, previously hosting in 1932 and 1984.
Facility
Planning and construction
Before the stadium was built, Exposition Park was the staging ground of various agricultural expositions and was operated by the Sixth District Agricultural Association. William Miller Bowen, head of the association, announced plans in January 1919 to build a football field for the University of Southern California in the park. Separately, the executive board of the Community Development Association determined in November 1919 that Los Angeles needed a municipal stadium capable of seating about 75,000. William May Garland, the CDA's president, advocated for the stadium to be built as a potential host of the 1924 Summer Olympics. A municipal bond issue was placed on the ballot on August 31, 1920; it required a two-thirds majority to pass and was narrowly defeated. Instead, in November 1921, the CDA leased part of Exposition Park from the city, built the stadium itself, and rented the venue back to the city and Los Angeles County until its debts were paid.Riess, Steven. "Power Without Authority: Los Angeles' Elites and the Construction of the Coliseum", Journal of Sport History 8:1, Spring 1981, pages 50–65.Siegel, Barry. Dreamers and Schemers: How an Improbable Bid for the 1932 Olympics Transformed Los Angeles from Dusty Outpost to Global Metropolis, University of California Press, 2020, pages 39–41.
The Coliseum was commissioned as a memorial to L.A. veterans of World War I, and rededicated in 1968 to all United States veterans of the war. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on December 21, 1921, with construction being completed in just over 16 months, on May 1, 1923. Designed by John and Donald Parkinson, the original bowl's initial construction costs were $954,873. The Coliseum opened in 1923 with a capacity of 75,144, the largest stadium in Los Angeles at the time. The field runs east to west with the press box on the south side of the stadium.
Later additions Ahead of the 1932 Olympics the stadium was extended upward to 79 rows of seats with two tiers of tunnels, expanding the seating capacity to 101,574. The signature Olympic cauldron was added and the Coliseum was briefly known as Olympic Stadium. The cauldron and the Olympic rings remain above the peristyle at the east end of the stadium.
In 1937, one of the first all-electric scoreboards in the nation was installed over the peristyle's center arch, later replaced in 1972. This was replaced in 1983 with a scoreboard and video screen that towered over the peristyle to one side of the arch. In August 2011, construction began on the Coliseum's west end on a new HD video scoreboard, accompanying the existing video scoreboard on the peristyle (east end) of the stadium. The video scoreboard officially went into operation on September 3, 2011, at USC football's home opener versus the University of Minnesota. The current jumbotrons to each side of the peristyle were installed in 2017.
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.
Renovations
1960s through 1980s 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 remained until 2018, although the yellow color was eliminated in the 1970s. The seating capacity was reduced to approximately 93,000.
From 1964 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–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 between 1977 and 1978, at the behest of Rams owner Carroll Rosenbloom, the capacity was just 71,500.
With the upcoming 1984 Summer Olympic Games, and under the direction of H. D. Thoreau Jr., a new track was installed and the playing field permanently placed inside it. A depiction of the Olympic rings and a 25-step hydraulic staircase were added on the central staircase and arch of the peristyle to allow the cauldron to be lit by lifting up the stairs to the burnable Olympic Rings, which brought the flame to the cauldron on top.
1993 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 as far from the field by the equivalent length of another football field. The Coliseum underwent a $15 million renovation before the 1993 football season, which lowered the field by and replacing the running track with 14 new rows of seats, bringing the first row of seats closer to the playing field (a maximum distance of at the eastern 30-yard-line). A portable seating section was built between the eastern endline and the peristyle bleachers (removable for concerts and similar events). The remaining bleachers were replaced with individual seating.Stadiums of the NFL-Los Angeles Coliseum-Los Angeles Rams/Raiders
This was 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. However, after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the $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. In 2000, Bentley Management Group (BMG) was hired as the project manager to complete work at the Coliseum and Sports Arena funded by FEMA, including the Coliseum's new press box elevator, various concession stands, restroom improvements, and concrete spalling repairs.
2018–2019 Additional seating increased the Coliseum's seating capacity to 93,607 in September 2008.www.dailytrojan.com After assuming the Coliseum master lease in 2013, USC unveiled an estimated $270 million project for a massive renovation and restoration the Coliseum in October 2015. The plans were met with mixed reactions from the public, and the Los Angeles Olympic bid committee contemplated additional renovations to support its bid. Construction began in January 2018 and was completed in time for the 2019 football season, using only university funds. The project budget increased from the initial estimate of $270 million to $315 million mainly due to the tight construction schedule.
The upgrades included replacing every seat in the stadium, adding new aisles and widening some seats; construction of a larger and modern press box with new box suites, premium lounges, a viewing deck, a V.I.P. section, and the introduction of LED ribbon boards; restoration and renaming of the peristyle to the Julia and George Argyros Plaza; and adding a new sound system, stadium wide Wi-Fi, two new HD video jumbotrons, new concession stands, upgraded entry concourses, new interior and exterior lighting, modernization of plumbing and electrical systems. Capacity was reduced by about 16,000 seats. The current official capacity of the Coliseum is 77,500, with 42 suites, 1,100 club seats, 24 loge boxes, and a 500-person rooftop terrace.
Seating capacity (college football) Years Capacity 1930 75,144 1934 101,574 1939 105,000 1946 103,000 1947–1964 101,671 1965–1966 97,500 1967–1975 94,500 1976–1982 92,604 1983–1995 92,516 1996–2007 92,000 2008–2017 93,607 2018 78,500 2019–present 77,500
Operation The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission provides public oversight of the master lease agreement with USC. The Commission consists of six voting members appointed by the three ownership interests (the State of California, Los Angeles County, and the City of Los Angeles) and meets on a quarterly basis. Under the lease, the university has year-round day-to-day management and operation responsibility for both the Coliseum and BMO Stadium properties. USC's Vice President of Auxiliary Services is the Chief Operating Officer of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and Coliseum staff are university employees.
Until 2013, the Commission directly operated the stadium under a series of mostly one and two year agreements with USC to rent the stadium for home football games. In 2006, the commission began focusing on signing a long-term lease with USC. After a rejected offer to purchase the stadium outright and a threat to move to the Rose Bowl in late 2007, the two sides signed a 25-year lease in May 2008, giving the Commission 8% of USC's ticket sales (approximately $1.5 million annually), but committing the agency to a list of renovations. These failed to materialize, and in July 2013, the Commission and USC implemented a significantly more extensive 98-year master lease agreement that transferred the long-term management, operation of both the Coliseum and the adjacent BMO Stadium property to USC. The agreement required the university to make approximately $100 million in initial physical repairs to the Coliseum, along with $1.3 million each year in rent to the State of California, maintenance of the Coliseum's physical condition at the same standard used on the USC Campus, and assumption of all financial obligations for the operations and maintenance of the Coliseum and BMO Stadium Complex., "Board approves Coliseum lease". ESPN. June 26, 2013., "USC signs historic lease agreement with LA Coliseum" September 5, 2013
Naming rights