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Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
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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 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 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.
The Coliseum has the distinction of being the only stadium in the world to host the Olympic Games twice, in 1932 and 1984.
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Encyclopedia
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 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 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.
The Coliseum has the distinction of being the only stadium in the world to host 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.
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, although they regularly drew far less during the 1990s. The current official capacity of the Coliseum is 93,607. 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 Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox played an exhibition game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. On March 29th, 2008 a Los Angeles and MLB record for attendance was broken. 115,300 people attended the game.
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). At the Los Angeles Dodgers Fiftieth Anniversary Game on March 29th, 2008, the torch was lit for the ThinkCure! charity ceremony, while Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" was played and the majority of the attendees turned on their complimentary souvenir keychain flashlights. In 2004, the cauldron was lit non-stop for seven days in tribute to Ronald Reagan, who had died; and 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. The torch was also lit for over a week following the September 11, 2001 attacks. It was lit for several days following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.
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 less than two years later, on May 1, 1923. 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 76,000. However, with the arrival of the Olympics only ten 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 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-west 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 installed in 1972, which in turn supplanted the 1937 model, one of the first electric scoreboards in the nation. Over the years new light towers have been placed along the north and south rims. The analog clock and thermometer over the office windows at either end of the peristyle were installed in 1956. Between the peristyle arches at the east end are plaques recognizing many of the memorable events and participants in Coliseum history, including a full list of 1932 and 1984 Olympic gold medalists.
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.
Renovations
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. During the 1960s and 70s, 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, reducing the capacity to 71,500. With the upcoming 1984 Summer Olympic Games, a new track was installed and the playing field permanently placed inside it. The large seating capacity made the venue problematic for the Raiders, as it meant that the vast majority of their home games could not be shown 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:
- The field was lowered by 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 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.
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 were required from government agencies (including FEMA) 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.
Events
Many events have been held at the Coliseum over the years; below are some of the more notable.
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. Located across the street from Exposition Park, USC's agreement to play all its home games at the Coliseum was a contributing factor to its original construction. From 1928 until their departure in 1982, the UCLA Bruins also played home games at the Coliseum. When USC and UCLA played each other, the "home" team fans sat on the North side of the stadium, and the "visiting" team fans sat on the South (press box) side of the stadium. For many years, both teams wore their home football jerseys for the UCLA-USC rivalry football games.
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 primary track and field events as well as opening and closing ceremonies. The 1932 games marked the introduction of the Olympic Village as well as the victory podium.
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. 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 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. 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. Some seats were as far as 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 high. The cables, towers, girders and wires were in play. Frick originally wanted the Dodgers to build a second screen in the stands, 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.
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 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Also in 1973, the Coliseum was host to Super Bowl VII which saw The (AFC) champion Miami Dolphins (170) defeated the (NFC) champion Washington Redskins (13-4), 147, and became the first, and presently the only team in the NFL to complete a perfect, undefeated season.
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. The same year, UCLA decided to move out, relocating its home games to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
Also in 1982, the Individual World Speedway Final was held for the first and, to this day, only time in the USA. The event saw American Bruce Penhall retain his title in a meeting that involved one of the most controversial incidents in the history of World Speedway, when Penhall and Englishman Kenny Carter collided.
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.
Bruce Springsteen played four consecutive sold-out nights at the Coliseum in the fall of 1985 as the culmination of his landmark Born In The U.S.A. tour. Black Sabbath played to a sellout audience on July 26, 1980. Van Halen also soldout the Coliseum during their 1988 OU812 Tour better known as the Monsters of Rock Tour 1988. Other notable concerts include The Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, and U2 (as part of the Joshua Tree Tour).
1990s-2000s
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.
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.
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. 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 with a 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 long, with a screen which one Boston writer dubbed the "Screen Monster". Even at that distance, 201 feet is also short of the minimum legal home run distance. This being an exhibition game, balls hit over the 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). Net proceeds from the game, estimated to be at $1 million (US) were to go to the ThinkCure charity.
This diagram () illustrates the differences in the dimensions between 1959 and 2008:
- 2008 - LF - LCF - CF - RCF - RF
- 1959 - LF - LCF - CF - RCF - RF
A sellout crowd of 115,300 was announced, 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 30,000+ attendees and 2008's event brought in about 55,000 attendees.
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.
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. Additional seating was included in the renovation plans which increased the Coliseum's seating capacity to 93,607 in September 2008.
The Coliseum and the NFL today
- See also: History of National Football League in Los Angeles
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 somewhat careless 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 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.
While a proposal to bring pro football back to Southern Califonia is still in the works, there has been little action taken in recent times and doubts of bringing an NFL team to the coliseum or any other venue in the region have risen. 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. In recent years, USC has had a series of mostly one- and two-year leases with the commission. 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.
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.
Attendance records
Football (college)
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
- 3. 103,000 1945 vs. UCLA
- 4. 102,548 1954 vs. UCLA
- 5. 102,050 1947 vs. UCLA
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 (2nd game) 1945
Football (NFL)
The Los Angeles Rams played the San Francisco 49ers before an NFL record attendance of 102,368 on November 10, 1957.
This stood as an overall NFL regular season record until broken by a 2005 regular season game played at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. This record still stands as the largest regular-season crowd to watch an NFL game in the United States.
The Coliseum hosted the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game, later called the Super Bowl. The first game had an attendance of 61,946. For Super Bowl VII in 1973, the attendance was 90,182, a record that would stand until Super Bowl XI at the Rose Bowl Stadium.
Baseball (MLB)
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, 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.
Popular culture
Due to its location near Hollywood, the Coliseum has been used in hundreds of commercials and movies over the years. Recently, 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. It was also used in the filming of the last episode of the second season of the television show 24.. A 2007-08 season episode of Shark was filmed at the Coliseum. The Third episode of Alias used the Coliseum as a Berlin location. It was also used in an episode of Beauty and the Geek (season 5) where the participants took part in a game of flag football with the Beauties winning.
The 1976 film Two-Minute Warning was set at the Coliseum.
The final scene of the film Money Talks was shot in the Coliseum.
The Coliseum also served as the starting line for the 13th installment of CBS's The Amazing Race.
Coliseum 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):
- Elgin Baylor, 2009
- Billy Graham Crusade, 1965
- President John F. Kennedy, 1964
- John McKay, 2001
- Jim Murray, 1999
- Walter O'Malley, 2008
- James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens, 1984
- Pope John Paul II, 1987
- Jackie Robinson, 2005
- Knute Rockne, 1955
- Pete Rozelle, 1998
- Vin Scully, 2008
- Kenneth Washington, 1972
- Jerry West, 2009
- John R. Wooden, 2008
See also
External links
- - official site
-
- - L.A. Memorial Coliseum
- - satellite photo - includes USC campus
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