The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is an American sports stadium located in the Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The stadium serves as the home to the University of Southern California (USC) Trojans football team, and as the temporary home for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL). The Coliseum was home to the Rams from 1946 to 1979, when they moved to Anaheim Stadium in Anaheim, California, and is serving as their home stadium again until the completion of Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, California. The facility has a permanent seating capacity of 93,607 for USC football games, making it the largest football stadium in the Pac-12 Conference. For Rams games, capacity is at 80,000, giving it the fourth-largest capacity in the NFL.
The stadium is located in Exposition Park and across the street from USC. The Coliseum is jointly owned by the state of California, Los Angeles County, and the city of Los Angeles and managed and operated by the Auxiliary Services Department of the University of Southern California. From 1959 to 2016, the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena was located adjacent to the Coliseum; the Sports Arena was closed in March 2016 and demolished between August and October 2016. Banc of California Stadium, a soccer-specific stadium and future home of Major League Soccer expansion club Los Angeles FC, is currently under construction on the former Sports Arena site and is scheduled to open in March 2018.
The Coliseum is the first stadium to have hosted the Summer Olympic Games twice, in 1932 and 1984 and has been proposed to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The stadium was the temporary home of the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball from 1958 to 1961 and was the host venue for games 3, 4, and 5 of the 1959 World Series. It was the site of the First AFL-NFL World Championship Game, later called Super Bowl I, and Super Bowl VII. Additionally, it has served as a home field for a number of other teams, including the Los Angeles Raiders of the NFL, and UCLA Bruins football. It was declared a National Historic Landmark on July 27, 1984, the day before the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics.
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission, which consists of three voting members appointed by the three ownership interests and meets on a quarterly basis, provides public oversight of the master lease agreement with USC. Under the lease the University has day-to-day management and operation responsibility for both the Coliseum and Sports Arena. The 98-year lease took effect on July 29, 2013, and was signed by the parties on September 5, 2013. The agreement requires the University to make approximately $100 million in physical improvements to the Coliseum, pay $1 million each year rent to the State of California, maintain the Coliseum's physical condition at the same standard used on the USC Campus, and assume all financial obligations for the operations and maintenance of the Coliseum and Sports Arena Complex.
