Looking Ahead

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum — declared a state and national historic landmark in 1984 — is in urgent need of repairs and upgrades to ensure the safety and comfort of the thousands of people who use the stadium for USC football games as well as other events. Today just as in 1923, however, the stadium’s unwieldy governance structure makes it difficult to gain consensus for approving plans and procuring the funds needed to realize the facility’s fullest potential.

The resulting pattern of deferred maintenance has led to the departure of numerous tenants over the past four decades, with only the Trojans holding firm. In an article published in the Los Angeles Times on September 7, 1987, Kevin Roderick reflected on the many teams who have abandoned the Coliseum, and pointed to a possible solution:

No sports authority in America has lost more major teams than the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission. This year’s champions in the National Basketball Association, the Lakers, and three football teams — the Rams, San Diego Chargers and UCLA — all have defected either from the Coliseum or its sister facility in Exposition Park, the Sports Arena.

… Mayor Tom Bradley and some other leaders have suggested that it is time to turn the Coliseum over to private management, which is how a growing number of publicly owned arenas are run.

Roderick also elaborated on the root of the problem:

For all its fame, the Coliseum is one of the oldest stadiums in the National Football League, with seats that place fans far from the action compared to modern stadiums. Any new team would be saddled with the stadium while trying to compete with the Rams and Raiders for customers.

The commission, meanwhile, has no money to repair its aging stadium….

With no resolution to this situation in the ensuing years, the deterioration of the Coliseum has become a recurring theme for sports enthusiasts in Los Angeles. On November 20, 1995, Times columnist Frank del Olmo again picked up the theme, giving it a different twist:

As I write this column, I don’t know whether UCLA or USC will win their annual football game, played Saturday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. But it really doesn’t matter because my point is not to promote the friendly rivalry between two major colleges that share the same hometown. This loyal Bruin fan wants to make a modest proposal to the Trojans.

Take the Coliseum, please!

You’d be doing a service not just to USC’s athletic tradition — which helped to make the Coliseum historic — but to all of Los Angeles. And that would only enhance the growing stature of USC as a university that is far more than a football powerhouse, being a center for research, community activism and even vision for this entire region.

It is clearer than ever that unless some respected local entity steps in to preserve the Coliseum, it will become a drain on the tax coffers of all three government entities that share its maintenance: the city and county of Los Angeles and the state of California.

… [S]ome things are more important than college rivalries — like saving a landmark that’s an important symbol to everyone who cares about Los Angeles.

The University of Southern California cares deeply about Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Guaranteeing a future for USC’s football home, however, depends upon a substantial investment of capital to perform vital repairs now, and a steady income to provide for upkeep in the years to come.