Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is a large outdoor sports stadium in the University Park neighborhood of 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 State of California and is currently being leased (and managed) by the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission. The Coliseum was declared a National Historic Landmark on July 27, 1984, the day before the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games.

	Capacity		92,000
	Opened		May 1923
	Owner		Los Angeles Coliseum Commission
	Operator		Los Angeles Coliseum Commission
	Surface		Grass
	Location		3911 South Figueroa Street Los Angeles, California 90037
	Construction cost		$955,000 USD

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 92,516. The Coliseum Commission also rents the Coliseum to various events, including international soccer games, musical concerts and other large outdoor events. Concurrently, the commission is negotiating a new lease with the state after the 48-year lease expired in December 2005.

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). 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.

History

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 already 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 an unorthodox east-west (north-south is conventional) 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.

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 11 feet (3.4 m) 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 54 feet (16 m) 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.

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 the television show 24.

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The ACC.com – The Official website of the Atlantic Coast Conference
NCAA – National Collegiate Athletic Association website
Los Angeles Coliseum official website
University of Southern California
USC Trojans

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